UC-NRLF 


SB 


THE  BEACON  BIOGRAPHIES 

EDITED   BY 

M.  A.  DEWOLFE  HOWE 


ROBERT  E.  LEE 

BY 

WILLIAM  P.  TRENT 


g  - 

1    I  M    I    I  in  I  I  1  \    I  I  i  i  1  I  >  !  /  I  >  1    I  I  XJ  ^* 


ROBERT     E.     LEE 


WILLIAM  P.  TRENT 


BOSTON 

SMALL,  MAYNARD  &  COMPANY 
MDCCCCVII 


Copyright, 
By  Small,  Maynard  &  Company 


Entered  at  Stationers'  Hall 


Press  of 
George  H.  Ellis,  Boston 


The  photogravure  used  as  a  frontispiece 
to  this  volume  is  from  a  photograph  by 
Homeier  &  Clark,  Richmond,  of  a  por 
trait  by  William  G.  Browne,  now  in  the 
possession  of  the  Westmoreland  Club, 
Richmond.  It  is  here  reproduced  by  the 
courteous  permission  of  the  owners.  Tlie 
present  engraving  is  by  John  Andrew  & 
Son,  Boston. 


284483 


TO   BRAIDER   MATTHEWS. 

Who  makes  gratitude  a  pleasure  and  friend- 
ship  an  inspiration. 


PKEFACE. 

In  preparing  this  little  volume,  I  have 
drawn  freely  upon  the  larger  biographies 
of  General  Lee,  particularly  upon  the  elabo 
rate  and  excellent  one  by  the  late  General 
A.  L.  Long,  and  upon  those  of  General 
Fitzhugh  Lee,  Eev.  J.  William  Jones,  and 
Professor  Henry  A.  White.  Their  love  of 
their  great  subject  makes  me  feel  sure  that 
the  surviving  authors  will  not  begrudge  lend 
ing  of  their  substance  to  a  writer  who  fully 
acknowledges  his  indebtedness  to  them,  and 
whose  sole  desire  is  to  add  a  small  tribute 
to  the  ever -increasing  fame  of  one  of  the 
world's  noblest  sons.  In  order,  however,  to 
secure  substantial  accuracy,  I  have  used 
many  books  bearing  on  the  war  for  the 
Union,  such  as  u  Grant7 s  Memoirs,"  Dr. 
Jtopes's  u  Story  of  the  Civil  War,"  Hen 
derson's  u  Stonewall  Jackson,"  Bachejs 
u Life  of  General  George  Gordon  Meade," 
etc.,  and  have  consulted  the  records  where 
it  seemed  necessary.  I  must  frankly  admit 
that,  in  the  course  of  my  studies,  I  was 


x  PREFACE 

often  tempted  to  abandon  them  in  despair ; 
for  nearly  every  author  seemed  bent  on 
defending  Ms  own  hero  from  every  possible 
criticism,  and  on  praising  such  commanders 
on  the  other  side  as  his  own  favorite  had 
defeated.  In  the  mental  confusion  that 
overcame  me  during  this  beivildering  read 
ing,  I  was  almost  rash  enough  to  conclude 
that,  with  a  few  books  and  a  steadfast  de 
termination  to  praise  Lee,  I  could  acquit 
myself  of  my  task  in  a  most  determined  and 
manful  fashion  ;  but  now  that  it  is  finished 
I  am  apprehensive  that,  not  being  a  special 
ist  in  military  history,  I  have  fallen  into 
errors  even  in  my  bare  outline  sketch.  If 
I  have,  I  trust  that  they  will  be  forgiven 
me  because  I  have  loved  much.  For  my 
enthusiasm  I  do  not  ask  to  be  forgiven, 
although  I  find  that  that  is  a  serious  fault 
in  these  critical  days.  My  admiration  for 
General  Lee  has  always  been  considerable, 
but  I  questioned  the  full  greatness  of  his 
powers  until  I  began  to  study  his  life  closely. 
Then  I  learned  to  see  him  as  he  is, — not 


PEEFACE  xi 

merely  a  great  son  of  my  own  native  State, 
not  merely  a  great  Southern  general,  not 
merely  a  great  American  in  whom  citizens 
of  every  section  may  take  just  pride,  but, 
better  than  all  these,  a  supremely  great  and 
good  man,  whose  fame  should  not  be  limited 
by  the  chauvinistic  conceptions  of  patriotism 
so  rife  among  us  to-day,  but  should  be  as 
wide  as  humanity,  or,  better  still,  as  his  own 
exquisite  spirit  of  charity  and  brotherly 


W.  P.  TRENT. 
SEWANEE,  TENN.,  March  1,  1899. 


CHRONOLOGY. 

1807 

January  19.  Robert  E.  Lee  was  born  at 
Stratford,  Westmoreland  County,  Ya. 

1811 
His  family  removed  to  Alexandria. 

1818 

His  father  died  while  Lee  was  in  the 
midst  of  his  schooling. 

1825 
Entered  West  Point. 

1829 

Graduated  second  in  his  class.  His 
mother  died.  Assigned  to  duty  at 
Hampton  Roads,  Ya. 

1831 

June  30.  Married  Mary  Randolph  Custis, 
of  Arlington. 

1834-37 
Assistant  to  chief  engineer  of  the  army. 

1837 

June.  Took  charge  of  improvement  of 
Mississippi  at  St.  Louis. 


xiv  CHKOM)LOGY 

1838 
Made  captain  of  engineers. 

1841 

At  Fort  Hamilton,  in  New  York  Har 
bor,  in  charge  of  defences. 

1844 
Appointed  visitor  to  West  Point. 

1846-47 

Eendered  distinguished  services  in  Mexi 
can  War. 

1848 
January-June.  Stationed  in  Mexico. 

1849-52 
At  work  on  the  defences  of  Baltimore. 

1852-55 
Superintendent  of  West  Point  Academy. 

1855 

April.  Appointed  lieutenant  colonel  of 
the  Second  Cavalry. 

1856-59 
Saw  service  against  Indians  in  Texas. 

1859 

October.  Suppressed  the  John  Brown  in 
surrection. 


CHEONOLOGY  xv 

1860 

February.  Took  charge  of  Department 
of  Texas  where  he  stayed  one  year. 

1861 

March  1.  Eeturned  to  Arlington  to  his 
family. 

March  16.  Appointed  colonel  of  First 
Cavalry. 

April  18.  Offered  command  of  United 
States  armies. 

April  20.  Resigned  commission  in  army. 
April  23.  Accepted  command  of  Vir 
ginia  forces. 

May-July.  Organized  troops  and  advised 
President  Davis  in  Eichmond. 
August-October.  Was  in  charge  of  abor 
tive  campaign  in  Western  Virginia. 
November.  Had  charge  of  coast  defences 
in  South  Carolina  and  Georgia  until  in 

1862 

March.  He  became  military  adviser  to 
President  Davis. 

June  1.  Assumed  command  of  Army  of 
Northern  Virginia. 


xvi  CHRONOLOGY 

1862  (continued} 

June  26-July  2.  Commanded  Confeder 
ates  in  Seven  Days'  fighting  around 
Richmond. 

August  30.  Defeated  Pope  at  second  Ma- 
nassas. 

September  5.  Crossed  the  Potomac.     Be 
gan  advance  into  Maryland. 
September  12.  Drew  battle  of  Antietam 
or  Sharpsburg.      Abandoned   campaign 
of  invasion. 

December  13.  Won  a  victory  over  Burn- 
side  at  Fredericksburg. 
December.  Was  in  winter  quarters  until 
March. 

1863 

May  2-3.  Won  a  victory  over  Hooker  at 
Chancellorsville. 

May  10.  His  great  lieutenant,    "  Stone 
wall'7  Jackson,  died. 
June.  Began  movements  leading  up  to 
second  invasion  of  the  North. 
July  1-3.  Defeated  at  Gettysburg. 
July  4-13.  Made  a  masterly  retreat  and 
recrossed  the  Potomac. 


CHEONOLOGY  xvii 

1863  (continued) 

October-November.  Conducted    the    inef 
fective  campaign  of  Mine  Bun. 
December.  Lay  in  winter  quarters  on  the 
Eapidan  until  April. 

1864 

May  5-6.  Fought  the  Battle  of  the  Wil 
derness  against  Grant. 
May    8-18.  Conducted     fighting     about 
Spottsylvania  Court-house. 
May  2l-June   1.  Conducted    operations 
on  interior  lines. 

June  2-3.  Fought  a  fierce  battle  at  Cold 
Harbor. 

June  18.  Joined  Beauregard  at  Peters 
burg.     Siege  of  Petersburg  began. 
July  30.  Fought  the  Battle  of  the  Crater. 

1865 

February  9.  Issued  his  first  general  order 
as  commander- in- chief. 
April  2.  Eetreated     from     Petersburg. 
End  of  the  siege. 
April  3.  Eichmond  fell. 
April  9.  Surrendered  to  Grant  at  Appo- 
mattox  Court-house. 


xviii  CHKONOLOGY 

1865  (continued) 

April  10.  Issued  his  Farewell  Address  to 
the  Army  of  Northern  Virginia. 
June  13.  Applied  for  pardon. 
August  4.  Elected  President  of  Washing 
ton  College,  Lexington,  Va.  (now  Wash 
ington  and  Lee  University). 

1867 

February  4.  Declined  to  be  a  candidate 
for  governorship  of  Virginia. 

1870 

March-April.  Visited  Georgia  in  search 
of  health. 

October  12.  Eobert  E.   Lee  died  at  Lex 
ington. 


ROBERT  E.  LEE 


ROBERT  E.  LEE. 

I. 

ROBERT  EDWARD  LEE  was  the  third 
son,  by  a  second  marriage,  of  the  cele 
brated  " Light- horse  Harry"  Lee,  who 
played  such  a  brave  part  as  a  cavalry 
leader  in  the  Revolutionary  War,  but  is 
perhaps  better  remembered  for  having 
summed  up  the  career  of  Washington  in 
the  appropriate  though  often  misquoted 
phrase,  ' '  first  in  war,  first  in  peace,  and 
first  in  the  hearts  of  his  fellow- citizens.77 
The  great  Confederate  chieftain  un 
doubtedly  got  much  of  his  military 
genius  and  fiery  energy  from  his  father's 
side;  but,  in  his  nobly  balanced  moral 
and  spiritual  nature,  he  seems  to  have 
taken  after  his  mother,  Anne  Hill  Car 
ter,  who,  in  her  person,  represented 
family  traditions  and  powers  as  eminent 
as  those  of  the  Lees.  We  have  not  time 
to  go  into  the  records  of  these  two  fami 
lies,  which  Lee  himself  never  paraded. 


2     '  KOBEET  S.  LEE 

It  must  suffice  us  to  know  that,  after 
ancient  and  honorable  distinction  in 
England,  men  and  women  bearing  the 
names  have  for  two  centuries  and  a  half 
illustrated  the  annals  of  Virginia,  with 
public  virtues  and  private  graces  which 
culminate  in  the  character  and  career  of 
the  hero  whose  life  will  be  briefly  told 
in  these  pages. 

That  life  began  on  Jan.  19,  1807,  in 
the  family  house  of  Stratford  in  "West 
moreland.  County.  In  the  same  county, 
at  an  estate  looking  out  upon  the  same 
broad  Potomac,  the  greatest  of  all  Vir 
ginians  and  Americans  had  been  born 
seventy-five  years  before.  In  1811,  by 
the  removal  of  his  father  to  Alexandria 
in  Fairfax  County,  the  young  boy, 
whose  name  will  be  more  and  more 
linked  with  that  of  Washington  as  time 
goes  on,  was  brought,  as  though  by  a 
propitious  fate,  into  a  favored  region, 
over  which  the  mature  fame  of  his  great 
predecessor  presided,  and  still  presides, 


EOBEET  E.   LEE  3 

like  a  tutelar  genius.  It  was  not  admi 
ration  for  Washington,  the  man,  or  in 
terest  in  Washington,  the  city,  from 
which  he  had  withdrawn  ten  years  be 
fore  at  the  advent  of  Jefferson  to  power, 
that  induced  Colonel  Henry  Lee  to 
change  his  residence,  but  the  very 
prudent  and  proper  desire  to  afford  his 
eight  children  greater  educational  priv 
ileges.  The  poetically- minded  reader 
will  thank  him,  however,  for  thus  giv 
ing  additional  local  contact  to  two  great 
careers  destined  to  be  linked  still  more 
closely  through  a  happy  marriage  5  while 
the  reader  who  craves  romance  will  be 
glad  to  learn  that  it  was  from  Alexan 
dria  that  the  old  warrior,  who  had  been 
commissioned  by  his  friend  Madison  as 
major-general  in  the  army  for  the  in 
vasion  of  Canada,  sallied  forth  in  July, 
1812,  for  the  succor  and  support  of  an 
other  friend,  the  Federalist  editor  Han 
son.  In  the  latter' s  behalf  he  received 
wounds,  at  the  hands  of  a  Eepublican 


4  EOBEET  E.  LEE 

mob  in  Baltimore,  that  subsequently  sent 
him  to  the  West  Indies  for  five  years  in 
a  vain  search  for  health,  and  to  Cum 
berland  Island  off  the  Georgia  coast,  the 
estate  of  his  dead  comrade,  General  Na 
thaniel  Greene,  to  find  release  from  his 
sufferings  far  from  his  home  and  his 
kindred.  These  elements  of  romance  in 
the  father's  life  find  few  counterparts  in 
that  of  the  son,  just  as  the  strong  in 
herited  and  transmitted  passions  of  the 
former  were  kept  in  splendid  subjection 
by  the  latter;  but  the  highest  glory 
needs  no  glamour,  and  the  unselfish  life 
of  a  great  man,  like  Lee,  epitomizes  and 
embodies  as  much  of  true  glory  as  finite 
men  can  attain  to. 

Meanwhile,  with  his  father  away  to 
the  South,  his  brother  Carter  at  Har 
vard,  and  his  brother  Sidney  Smith  in 
the  navy,  the  young  Eobert  became 
the  nurse  and  mainstay  of  his  invalid 
mother  ;  for  one  of  his  sisters  was  an  in 
valid  also,  and  one  was  still  younger 


EOBEET  E.  LEE  5 

than  himself.  All  accounts  go  to  prove 
that  never  did  any  son  accept  responsi 
bilities  more  faithfully  or  any  mother 
receive  her  son's  loving  services  more 
gratefully  and  appropriately,  with  ben 
edictions  and  counsels  and  prayers. 
"Bobert  was  always  good/'  his  father 
once  wrote ;  and  this  is  the  testimony 
of  the  schoolmaster  who  trained  him  in 
mathematics  for  West  Point,  and  of 
relatives  who  watched  his  development 
with  pride.  The  dignity  and  grace  of 
absolute  self-poise,  and  of  single-hearted 
devotion  to  duty,  are  as  characteristic 
of  Lee's  youth  as  of  that  of  Milton  or 
of  Washington  ;  and  in  all  three  cases  it 
is  impossible  to  discover  the  least  trace 
of  unpleasant  self- consciousness  or  of 
priggishness.  And  with  Lee?  as  with 
Washington,  it  was  maternal  devotion 
that  best  seconded  Nature  in  her  task  of 
preparing  for  the  world  a  rounded  man. 
His  choice  of  a  military  career  was 
probably  determined  for  Lee  by  in- 


6  EOBEET  E.  LEE 

herited  capacities ;  but  perhaps,  as  some 
biographers  have  suggested,  he  wished 
also  to  relieve  his  mother  of  the  charge 
of  supporting  him.  Doubtless  he  would 
have  succeeded  equally  well  in  the  min 
istry  ;  for  his  mere  presence  was  from 
his  earliest  youth  a  reproof  to  vice,  as  we 
learn  from  the  story  of  a  dissipated  host 
of  his,  who  came  to  his  young  guest's 
room,  without  a  word  said  by  the  latter, 
and  confessed  his  faults  and  promised 
amendment.  Milton,  at  Cambridge,  was 
just  such  an  apostle  of  purity  ;  but  pre 
cisely  as  we  are  glad  that  Milton  partly, 
at  least,  abandoned  theology  for  poetry, 
so  we  are  glad  that  Lee  illustrated  the 
Christian  virtues  in  the  camp  and  on  the 
battlefield  instead  of  in  the  pulpit.  He 
began  to  illustrate  them,  amid  somewhat 
alien  surroundings,  immediately  upon 
his  entrance  to  West  Point  in  1825,  on 
an  appointment  secured  for  him  by  Gen 
eral  Andrew  Jackson,  on  whom  he  had 
made  a  good  impression.  He  received 


EOBEET  E.  LEE  7 

not  a  single  demerit,  was  punctilious  in 
performing  his  soldierly  duties,  con 
tracted  not  a  vice  or  even  an  unsavory 
habit,  and  finally  gave  proof  of  his  dili 
gence  and  of  the  clearness  and  strength 
of  his  mind  by  graduating,  after  a  four 
years*  course,  with  the  second  highest 
honors  of  his  class.  He  was  at  once  ap 
pointed  second  lieutenant  of  engineers, 
and  hastened  home  to  his  mother,  who 
was  permitted  just  to  smile  upon  him 
before  she  died. 

Two  years  later  another  woman  came 
permanently  into  Lee's  life  to  make  it 
blessed  in  the  highest  sense  of  the  word. 
During  his  boyhood  he  had  visited,  at 
Arlington,  the  beautiful  Potomac  home 
of  Mr.  Washington  Parke  Custis,  and 
had  been  attracted  by  that  gentleman's 
surviving  daughter,  Mary  Eandolph. 
This  grand- daughter  of  Washington's 
wife  seems  to  have  been  a  lovely  and 
fine  woman,  as  well  as  a  great  heiress. 
Moreover,  she  knew  how  to  recognize 


8  EGBERT  E.   LEE 

noble  qualities  in  a  man,  which  lovely 
and  fine  women  have  not  always  done. 
Lee  in  his  cadet  nniforin  had  looked 
handsome  enough,  and  had  pleased 
young  and  old  alike,  when  during  his 
vacations  he  had  gone  from  one  Vir 
ginia  house  to  another,  as  was  the  fash 
ion  in  those  hospitable  days;  but  he 
must  have  been  specially  attractive,  as 
a  tall,  manly  officer,  when  he  took  a 
holiday  from  his  engineering  work  on 
the  fortifications  at  Hampton  Roads,  in 
order  to  visit  Arlington  and  its  young 
mistress.  In  due  time  (June,  1831) 
the  courtship  ended  in  one  of  those 
delightful,  old-fashioned  country  wed 
dings  of  which  the  few  survivors  love  to 
tell.  We  can  still  read  the  names  of 
the  bridesmaids  and  groomsmen,  if  we 
have  a  mind  to ;  we  can  imagine  the 
hilarity  of  the  well-cared-for  slaves; 
we  can  smile  at  the  picture  presented 
by  the  tall  parson,  who,  drenched  in  a 
shower,  had  been  forced  to  don  habili- 


EOBEET  E.  LEE  9 

merits  originally  cut  to  the  measure  of 
short  Mr.  Custis ;  we  can  wish  that  some 
Virginian  poet  had  outstripped  Suck 
ling  by  making  this  wedding  famous  in 
song.  But,  after  all,  the  best  thing  we 
can  do  is  to  remember  that  no  purer 
marriage  was  ever  made,  and  that  noth 
ing  but  happiness  flowed  from  it. 

The  honeymoon  seems  to  have  been 
spent  at  Arlington,  and  must  have  given 
Lee  occasion  to  ponder,  in  his  serious 
way,  over  the  responsibilities  resting 
upon  the  owner  of  many  slaves.  Neither 
he  nor  his  father-in-law  believed  in  the 
institution  which  was  just  beginning  to 
array  its  warm  partisans  and  violent 
opponents.  Indeed,  Mr.  Custis  manu 
mitted  his  negroes ;  and  Lee,  as  executor, 
carried  out  the  provisions  of  his  will, 
although  the  War  for  the  Union  was 
raging  at  the  time.  So  long,  however, 
as  circumstances  forced  him  to  be  a 
master,  the  young  officer  was  determined 
to  be  a  kind  one.  There  is  even  a  story, 


10  KOBEKT  E.  LEE 

as  Professor  White  reminds  us,  that  he 
took  a  consumptive  coachman  of  his 
mother's  to  Georgia,  and  there  had  him 
cared  for.  But  Virginia  country  life 
had  its  pleasures  as  well  as  its  respon 
sibilities  5  and,  if  Lee  had  been  made  of 
less  strenuous  stuff,  he  would  have  hesi 
tated  to  serve  his  country  three  years 
longer  in  building  coast  defences,  and 
would  have  settled  down  at  Arlington 
to  take  his  ease.  He  had  loved  hunting 
ever  since  boyhood,  when  he  used  to  fol 
low  the  hounds  for  hours  unfatigued; 
the  sights  and  sounds  of  Nature  were 
dear  to  him  through  life ;  he  could 
have  made  himself  as  methodical  a 
farmer  as  Washington ;  he  thoroughly 
enjoyed  social  visiting  from  plantation 
to  plantation.  In  a  word,  he  had  in 
him  the  making  of  an  ideal  country 
gentleman;  but  he  had  also  something 
more.  He  loved  his  profession,  and  felt 
that  it  was  a  noble  one  ;  and  he  resolved 
to  cling  to  it  for  his  country's  sake,  al- 


EGBERT  E.  LEE  11 

though  he  was  too  good  a  man  to  wish 
for  war  and  the  personal  distinction  he 
might  acquire  therein. 


II. 

IN  1834  Lee  was  transferred  from 
Portress  Monroe  to  Washington,  where 
he  acted  as  assistant  to  the  chief  engi 
neer  of  the  army,  with  the  rank  of  first 
lieutenant.  This  enabled  him  to  live 
at  Arlington  ;  but,  on  days  when  the 
long  horseback  ride  was  impossible,  he 
joined  a  "mess"  containing  such  emi 
nent  Southerners  as  William  C.  Bives, 
Hugh  S.  Legare,  and  Joel  E.  Poinsett, 
as  well  as  some  younger  spirits,  one 
among  whom  was  destined  to  obtain  a 
rank  among  Confederate  commanders 
second  only  to  his  own,  Joseph  E.  John 
ston.  Lee  was  probably  not  the  gayest 
or  most  talkative  of  the  company,  al 
though  there  is  plenty  of  evidence  that 
he  enjoyed  a  joke,  and  could  tell  one 
on  occasion;  but  at  least  he  was  never 
known  to  speak  ill  of  any  one,  and  he 
was  not  too  sedate  to  invite  a  comrade 
to  mount  behind  him  and  ride  double 
down  Pennsylvania  Avenue. 


EOBEET  E.  LEE  13 

After  three  years  of  such  uneventful 
life,  he  was  ordered  West  to  superintend 
the  proposed  improvement  of  the  Upper 
Mississippi  for  the  purposes  of  navi 
gation.  At  St.  Louis  the  river  was 
threatening  to  leave  the  city  high  and 
dry,  while  inundating  the  Illinois  shore. 
There  was  also  work  to  be  done  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Des  Moines  Eiver  and  else 
where.  After  a  long  trip,  via  the  Ohio, 
and  a  steamer  wreck  at  the  Des  Moines 
rapids,  Lee  and  his  party  made  their 
surveys,  and  then  prepared  their  maps 
and  plans  in  a  St.  Louis  warehouse. 
Lee  did  this  sort  of  work  admirably,  for 
he  was  neatness  and  accuracy  personi 
fied,  and  looked  for  a  strict  observance 
of  orders  in  others.  Congress  approved 
the  St.  Louis  report  subsequently  sub 
mitted  ;  and  the  accomplished  engineer, 
who  was  made  captain  in  1838,  was 
kept  at  his  important  task  until  he  was 
able  to  show  his  captious  local  critics 
that  his  plan  of  forcing  "the  current 


14  EOBEET  E.  LEE 

back  into  its  original  channel,  by  driv 
ing  piles  and  constructing  cribs  and 
wing-dams, "  would  afford  the  city  the 
relief  it  needed.  His  method  of  proced 
ure  seems  to  have  been  more  or  less 
original,  and  to  have  been  the  result  of 
much  hard  study.  We  are  more  inter 
ested,  however,  in  the  familiar  letters 
written  home,  which  give  glimpses  of 
the  growth  of  a  strong,  fine  character. 
The  testimony  of  comrades,  also,  is  not 
wanting  to  strengthen  our  impression 
that  few  people  could  have  met  Lee  at 
the  beginning  of  his  prime  without 
being  struck  by  his  manly  beauty,  his 
genial  but  dignified  nature,  his  mental 
breadth  and  balance,  and  his  unobtru 
sive  but  always  conspicuous  Christian 
character. 

Between  his  Western  service  and  the 
outbreak  of  the  Mexican  War  in  1846, 
Captain  Lee's  life  was  singularly  free 
from  incident,  if  his  chief  biographers 
may  be  trusted.  He  seems  to  have  been 


EOBEET  E.  LEE  15 

offered  iu  1839  an  instructorship  at  West 
Point,  which  with  his  usual  and,  it 
must  be  confessed,  over-scrupulous  mod 
esty  he  declined.  Two  years  later  he 
was  put  in  charge  of  the  defences  of  New 
York  Harbor,  and  remained  at  Fort 
Hamilton  until  his  services  were  re 
quired  in  the  field.  Perhaps  the  un- 
eventfulness  of  his  life  is  sufficiently 
explained  by  the  fact  that  he  was  con 
tinuously  busy,  not  merely  with  his 
engineering  work,  but  with  his  military 
studies.  He  must  have  been  studying 
the  campaigns  of  great  commanders,  and 
become  infused  with  the  martial  spirit ; 
for  we  find  him,  upon  the  eve  of  the  war 
with  Mexico,  longing  to  enter  some  more 
active  branch  of  the  service,  preferably 
the  artillery.  Meanwhile  family  life 
was  most  pleasant  to  him,  and  he  proved 
himself  an  excellent  father  to  his  seven 
children. 

His  views  with  regard  to  the  just  or 
unjust  character  of  the  Mexican  War 


16  EOBEET  E.  LEE 

are  not  easily  determined.  He  did,  in 
deed,  declare  that  the  United  States  had 
bullied  the  weaker  nation,  and  that  he 
was  ashamed  of  the  fact ;  but  his  natural 
exultation  at  the  great  success  of  the 
American  arms,  to  which  he  had  con 
tributed  most  signally,  was  able  to  make 
him  put  such  thoughts  in  the  back 
ground,  and  there  is  evidence  that  he 
had  a  soldier's  impatience  at  diplomatic 
slowness,  and  wished  a  just  portion  of  the 
conquered  territory  to  be  taken  at  once. 
As  questions  of  public  policy  were  being 
freely  discussed  at  the  time,  this  com 
parative  silence  of  Lee's  is  of  interest  as 
throwing  light  upon  his  subsequent  con 
duct.  It  is  clear  that,  although,  as  we 
shall  see  later,  he  was  not  incapable  of 
forming  intelligent  opinions  upon  such 
matters,  he  was  disposed  to  preserve  a 
military  aloofness  from  politics.  This 
fact  partly  explains  his  subsequent  adhe 
sion  to  the  Confederacy,  and  his  unwill- 
ness  to  press  his  own  views  upon  the 
government  of  President  Davis. 


EOBEET  E.  LEE  17 

Be  this  as  it  may,  it  is  quite  clear  that 
of  all  the  young  officers,  whether  from 
the  North  or  the  South,  to  whom  the 
Mexican  War  gave  the  baptism  of  fire, 
the  most  distinguished,  whether  for  indi 
vidual  feats  of  bravery  or  for  important 
military  services,  was  Captain  Eobert  E. 
Lee.  At  the  outbreak  of  hostilities  he 
was  attached  to  General  WooPs  com 
mand  in  the  northern  departments.  His 
chief  exploit  at  this  stage  of  his  career 
gives  evidence  of  the  fearlessness  and 
thoroughness  of  his  scouting  qualities,  — 
qualities  which  he  afterward  used  often 
to  put  into  practice,  even  when  he  was 
commanding  large  armies.  General 
Wool,  just  before  the  battle  of  Buena 
Yista,  wished  to  know  whether  it  was 
true  that  Santa  Anna  and  his  army  were 
encamped  within  twenty  miles,  as  had 
been  reported.  Lee  volunteered  to  find 
out,  and  started  off  with  a  Mexican  guide 
to  meet  his  cavalry  escort.  He  missed 
these  in  some  way,  and  soon  found  him- 


18  EOBEET  E.  LEE 

self  several  miles  beyond  the  American 
lines.  Threatening  his  guide  with  death, 
should  he  prove  treacherous,  Lee  rode 
on  until  he  came  to  signs  that  seemed  to 
have  been  made  by  the  enemy.  He 
must  have  fuller  information,  however, 
and,  in  spite  of  his  guide's  terrors,  per 
sisted  in  searching  for  Santa  Anna's 
picket- posts.  Further  and  further  he 
pressed,  until  he  came  upon  what  ap 
peared  to  be  a  large  encampment.  Even 
now  he  would  not  turn  back,  but  pene 
trated  to  within  ear-shot,  and  then  vent 
ured  into  moonlight  clear  enough  to 
assure  him  that  the  apparent  encamp 
ment  was  a  flock  of  sheep  !  The  drovers 
informed  him  that  Santa  Anna  had  not 
yet  crossed  the  mountains,  and  he  gal 
loped  back  twenty  miles  with  the  impor 
tant  news.  After  three  hours'  rest  he 
led  some  cavalrymen  over  his  former 
route  until  he  actually  reached  the  out 
posts  of  the  enemy's  army.  If  he  could 
always  have  gathered  his  information 


EOBEET  E.  LEE  19 

in  the  War  for  the  Union  in  this  thor 
ough  manner,  more  than  one  important 
campaign  might  have  had  a  more  pros 
perous  ending. 

In  the  beginning  of  1847,  Lee  joined 
the  staff  of  General  Winfield  Scott  before 
Yera  Cruz,  at  the  personal  request  of  that 
commander.  The  high-strung  old  sol 
dier  knew  his  man,  and  declared  later 
that  Lee  was  "the  greatest  military 
genius  in  America.'7  The  latter  cer 
tainly  gave  his  chief  every  reason  to 
form  such  an  opinion,  when  Scott's 
ebullient  nature  is  taken  into  account. 
He  began  by  arranging  the  batteries, 
which  reduced  the  town  within  a  week  ; 
and  amid  the  incessant  firing  he  had 
time  to  pray  for  the  safety  of  his  brother, 
Sidney  Smith  of  the  navy,  who  was  in 
charge  of  one  of  the  guns.  His  ac 
tivity  secured  him  favorable  mention, 
which  became  even  more  complimentary 
after  his  skilful  reconnoissances  amid  the 
mountain  spurs  had  rendered  possible 


20  EOBEKT  E.   LEE 

the  storming  of  the  heights  of  Cerro 
Gordo  and  the  rout  of  Santa  Anna's 
army.  There  is  a  touch  of  generous  en 
thusiasm  in  General  Scott's  praise  of  his 
subordinate's  usefulness,  and  of  his  gal 
lantry  "  in  conducting  columns  to  their 
stations  under  the  heavy  fire  of  the  en 
emy."  There  is  also  a  touch  of  impetu 
ous  rashness  in  the  story  that  Lee,  while 
scouting,  pushed  too  near  the  enemy, 
and  was  forced  to  lie  in  concealment  all 
night  beneath  a  fallen  tree,  on  which 
more  than  one  Mexican  sat  down  to  rest. 
In  his  after  career,  this  spirit  of  battle 
intoxication  led  Lee  too  far,  just  as  it 
did  Washington ;  but  it  increased  the 
love  of  his  soldiers  for  him,  and  it  lends 
an  attractive  human  flush  to  his  fame. 
The  human  note  is  conspicuous  also  in 
the  affectionate  letters  he  was  sending 
home  to  his  wife  and  children,  of  whom 
lie  was  thinking  "  when  the  musket- balls 
and  grape  were  whistling  over  his  head 
in  a  perfect  shower7' 5  and  his  tender 


EGBERT  E.   LEE  21 

heart  comes  out  in  his  descriptions  of 
the  horrors  of  war,  and  of  the  relief  with 
which  he  turns  to  the  natural  beauties  of 
the  country  around  him.  It  may  be 
well  to  note  here  that  Lee's  love  of 
external  nature,  as  evidenced  by  his 
letters,  was  as  characteristic  of  him  as 
his  love  of  children.  His  love  of  ani 
mals  was  also  marked.  On  one  occasion 
near  Petersburg,  after  having  warned 
back  some  soldiers  who  had  ventured 
into  danger  on  account  of  their  enthusi 
asm  for  him,  he  exposed  himself  to  the 
enemy's  fire,  in  order  to  replace  an  un 
fledged  sparrow  in  its  nest. 

By  August  Scott  was  ready  to  advance 
upon  the  City  of  Mexico,  and  by  the  19th 
his  headquarters  were  at  San  Augustin. 
Eeconnoissance  of  the  causeways  leading 
to  the  capital  had  to  be  made ;  and  Lee 
and  an  officer,  afterward  famous  as  Gen 
eral  Beauregard,  were  sent  across  a 
broken  field  of  volcanic  rock,  known  as 
the  Pedrigal,  to  explore  the  situation  of 


22  EOBEKT  E.  LEE 

Contreras.  Having  surveyed  the  rough 
ground,  Lee  set  a  pioneer  corps  to  mak 
ing  a  road,  over  which  in  a  few  hours 
he  guided  the  divisions  of  Pillow  and 
Twiggs.  He  accompanied  the  latter 
force  in  its  attack  upon  General  Valen 
cia's  intrenchments  at  the  edge  of  the 
lava  field.  Darkness  having  checked  a 
flank  movement,  it  was  deemed  best  to 
await  re -enforcements ;  and  Lee  under 
took  to  report  to  General  Scott  the  plan 
of  attack  he  had  himself  suggested  to  a 
council  of  officers.  Unattended,  amid 
thick  gloom  and  driving  rain,  he  set  out 
over  the  fissured  lava,  and  by  midnight 
reached  San  Augustin,  and  reported  to 
his  commander.  Scott  was  so  impressed 
by  his  courage  and  endurance  that  he 
afterward  declared  that  in  that  midnight 
journey  Lee  had  done  "the  greatest 
feat  of  physical  and  moral  courage  per 
formed  by  any  individual, ? '  to  his  knowl 
edge,  during  the  campaign.  Not  content 
with  this  signal  exploit,  Lee  guided  re- 


KOBEET  E.  LEE  23 

enforcements  before  dawn  to  the  seat 
of  operations,  and  thus  secured  from 
Scott  the  chief  credit  for  the  brilliant 
victory  of  Contreras  that  ensued. 

The  Mexicans  were  now  concentrated 
at  the  village  of  Churubusco  ;  and,  in  the 
assault  that  followed.  Lee  rendered  good 
service  by  urging  forward  a  howitzer 
battery  to  the  support  of  the  brigades  of 
Pierce  and  Shields,  and  by  reporting  to 
Scott  the  movements  of  the  enemy's 
cavalry.  The  victory  of  Molino- del-Bey 
followed  on  September  8.  Then  came  the 
brilliant  charge  up  the  steeps  of  Chapul- 
tepec,  which  had  been  advised  by  Beau- 
regard,  Lee  dissenting.  On  this  day  of 
hot  firing,  in  which  Joseph  E.  Johnston, 
George  B.  McClellan,  George  E.  Pickett, 
and  Thomas  J.  Jackson  distinguished 
themselves,  Lee  as  chief  aide  carried 
Scott's  orders  to  and  fro  "  until  he 
fainted  from  a  wound  and  the  loss  of 
two  nights7  sleep  at  the  batteries. 7  ?  He 
had  already  been  bre vetted  major  after 


24  EOBEET  E.  LEE 

Cerro  Gordo  and  lieutenant  colonel  after 
Churubusco.  ~Now  he  won  the  brevet 
rank  of  colonel.  His  wound  did  not 
keep  him  out  of  the  race  for  the  capital, 
and  he  had  his  part  in  the  triumphal 
entry  of  Sept.  14,  1847. 

In  the  lull  that  followed,  Lee  had 
plenty  of  work  to  do  in  connection  with 
surveys  and  drawings  of  the  city.  He 
was  so  busy  that  he  could  not  be  dragged 
to  a  banquet  to  answer  to  a  toast  to  him 
self,  but  he  found  time  to  write  very 
genial  letters  home  and  to  make  visits 
to  churches  and  interesting  spots  in  the 
vicinity.  He  did  not  join  in  any  exu 
berant  celebration  of  his  country's  vic 
tories  5  but  his  comrades,  as  we  have  just 
seen,  remembered  him,  and  the  com 
manders,  from  Scott  down,  wrote  and 
spoke  highly  in  his  praise.  His  desires 
for  active  and  successful  service  had 
been  amply  fulfilled  ;  and,  if  he  had  had 
any  personal  vanity,  he  might  have  been 
pleased  to  learn  that  competent  judges 


EOBEET  E.  LEE  25 

considered  him  the  handsomest  man  in 
the  army.  A  photograph  taken  in  1852 
makes  one  feel  that  this  was  not  a  mis 
taken  judgment ;  but  it  is  best  to  let 
one's  mind  dwell  on  the  soldier's  daring 
and  the  man's  quiet  virtues,  and  on  the 
fact  that  he  had  received  just  the  sort 
of  training  in  subordinate  positions  that 
would  fit  him  to  be  a  great  leader  when 
the  time  should  come.  His  bursting  into 
tears  when  he  saw  how  Joe  Johnston 
had  been  affected  by  the  loss  of  a  dear 
relative,  and  his  efforts  to  patch  up  the 
differences  between  Scott  and  his  sub 
ordinates,  were  indicative  of  qualities 
that  would  not  interfere  with  this  train 
ing,  but  would  rather  tend  to  make  him 
the  most  gentle  and  considerate  and 
best  beloved  of  all  the  great  captains. 

The  war  over,  Lee  was  placed  in 
charge  of  the  defences  then  constructing 
at  Baltimore.  While  in  this  employ 
ment,  he  was  tendered  the  leadership  of 
a  Cuban  insurrection  by  a  junta  in  New 


26  EOBEET  E.  LEE 

York,  but  declined  it,  as  Mr.  Jefferson 
Davis  has  informed  us,  on  account  of  his 
duty  to  his  own  country  to  continue  in 
her  service.  Perhaps  by  going  he  might 
have  averted  a  subsequent  war,  and 
been  brought  to  the  front  more  quickly 
in  the  War  for  the  Union,  with  results 
that  cannot  well  be  calculated.  Such 
speculations  are  idle ;  but  it  is  well  to 
notice  the  delicate  conscience  with  re 
gard  to  the  national  government,  as  well 
as  the  always  preponderant  modesty 
with  which  he  sought  to  decline  his 
appointment  in  1852  to  the  superintend- 
ency  of  the  academy  at  West  Point. 
His  superiors  would  not  hear  of  his  de 
clination,  and  he  showed  that  they  were 
right  by  improving  the  discipline  and 
lengthening  the  course  of  study  to  five 
years.  In  1855,  it  is  needless  to  say 
without  any  self-seeking  on  his  part,  he 
was  promoted  lieutenant  colonel  of  the 
Second  Cavalry,  which  necessitated  his 
leaving  the  academy  where  he  had  had 


EOBEET  E.  LEE  27 

the  pleasure  of  seeing  his  son  Custis, 
afterward  a  Confederate  general  and 
president  of  Washington  and  Lee  Uni 
versity,  graduate  at  the  head  of  his 
class. 

Lee's  new  position  had  been  secured 
to  him  through  the  increase  of  the  army, 
due  to  the  acquisition  of  territory  from 
Mexico  and  to  the  repeated  Indian  upris 
ings.  After  being  recruited  at  Jefferson 
Barracks,  the  Second  Cavalry,  under 
Colonel  Albert  Sidney  Johnston,  pro 
ceeded  to  Western  Texas,  where  Lee 
joined  them  in  March,  1856.  He  took 
firm  charge  of  the  parleyings  with  Ca- 
tumseh,  a  troublesome  chief,  and  pursued 
his  bands,  consoling  himself  for  the  mo 
notony  of  his  ordinary  camp  life  by  his 
study  of  the  flora  and  fauna  of  the  in 
teresting  region.  He  also  kept  close 
to  his  family  by  means  of  tender 
letters,  and  to  his  God  by  solitary 
services  in  his  tent.  On  Easter  Day, 
1857,  he  seems  specially  to  have  felt  his 


28  EGBERT  E.  LEE 

loneliness.  In  July  the  command  of  the 
regiment  devolved  upon  him,  Johnston 
being  called  to  Washington ;  and  three 
months  later  he  himself  was  summoned 
home  on  account  of  the  death  of  his 
father-in-law,  Mr.  Custis.  In  due  time 
he  returned,  and  continued  his  command 
until  the  autumn  of  1859,  when  he  ob 
tained  leave  to  visit  his  family. 

During  this  visit  the  famous  John 
Brown  raid  occurred,  and  the  govern 
ment  at  once  ordered  Lee  from  Arling 
ton  to  the  seat  of  the  disturbance.  He 
reached  Harper7  s  Ferry  with  a  company 
of  marines  on  October  19,  and  forthwith 
informed  himself  of  the  situation.  He 
posted  his  soldiers  in  the  armory,  defer 
ring  an  attack  on  Brown  and  his  men 
until  morning,  because  he  had  learned 
that  they  had  taken  citizen  hostages 
with  them  into  the  engine-house.  The 
next  day  at  sunrise  a  party  of  marines 
broke  in,  and  secured  the  insurgents  and 
the  prisoners,  none  of  the  hostages  being 


EOBEET  E.  LEE  29 

hurt,  but  all  save  four  of  the  lawbreak 
ers  being  killed  or  mortally  wounded. 
Brown  had  previously  refused  a  propo 
sition  to  surrender,  offering  terms  on  his 
part  which  Lee  could  not  have  taken, 
regarding  the  old  man  and  his  followers, 
as  he  naturally  did,  as  flagrant  offenders 
against  the  peace  of  the  Commonwealth 
of  Virginia.  Lee  could  and  did,  how 
ever,  protect  his  prisoners  against  would 
be  l;ynchers,  and,  after  kindly  treatment, 
duly  handed  them  over  to  the  civil 
authorities.  His  diary  of  the  affair 
shows  that  he  regarded  it,  as  nearly  all 
Southerners  did  then  and  have  done 
since,  from  a  social  and  political  point 
of  view,  and  not  at  all  from  a  dramatic 
—  least  of  all  from  a  sentimental  —  one. 
He  could  not,  however,  have  relished 
his  task  ;  and  we  can  afford  to  hurry  on. 
His  period  of  rest  was  broken  early 
in  1860  by  a  call  to  Eichmond  to  advise 
the  legislature  with  regard  to  organizing 
the  militia  in  view  of  future  invasions, 


30  EOBEET  E.  LEE 

and  a  month  later  he  was  ordered  to 
take  command  of  the  Department  of 
Texas.  Letters,  which  will  be  again 
referred  to,  show  that  the  rapidly  wid 
ening  breach  between  the  sections  was 
filling  much  of  his  thoughts  during  his 
last  year  of  service  in  the  army  of  the 
United  States ;  but  he  also  had  occupa 
tion  in  securing  forage  and  in  pursuing 
a  troublesome  bandit  named  Cortinas. 
Several  months  were  passed  in  San  An 
tonio,  where  he  took  interest  in  the 
building  of  an  Episcopal  church ;  but, 
when  all  is  said,  it  seems  a  most  un 
eventful  twelvemonth  for  a  great  hero 
to  spend,  before  Providence  would  per 
mit  him  fairly  to  enter  upon  his  mighty 
life-work.  But  at  last,  with  the  seces 
sion  of  Texas,  his  recall  to  Washington 
came  in  February,  1861 5  and,  after  a 
short  passage  through  the  Valley  of  the 
Shadow,  he  emerged  upon  the  sunlit 
plains  of  the  heroic  epoch  of  his  life. 


III. 

IT  would  be  superfluous  to  attempt 
to  enter  here  upon  any  discussion  of  the 
causes  that  led  to  the  formation  of  the 
Southern  Confederacy  and  to  the  conse 
quent  War  for  the  Union.  It  must  be 
clearly  understood,  however,  that  the 
compact  theory  of  the  origin  of  the 
Union  was  almost  universally  held 
throughout  the  South,  and  had  been 
so  held  since  1789,  as  indeed  it  had 
been  partly  held  by  New  England  in 
1812.  In  view  of  this  theory  the  right 
of  a  State  to  withdraw  from  the  Union 
for  good  cause  was  maintained  by  al 
most  every  Southerner,  and  a  feeling 
had  been  growing  for  many  years  that 
the  attitude  of  the  people  of  the  North 
toward  the  institution  of  slavery  con 
stituted  such  a  cause.  Abolitionist  agi 
tation  during  the  thirties,  divided  policy 
with  regard  to  the  Mexican  War  during 
the  forties,  the  squabble  over  the  newly 


32  EOBEET  E.  LEE 

acquired  territory  and  the  Fugitive  Slave 
Law  in  the  fifties,  had  brought  extremists 
to  the  front  in  both  sections,  and  had 
made  the  Presidential  election  of  1860 
practically  a  test  vote  as  to  whether 
the  time-honored  policy  of  compromise 
should  be  further  tried  or  a  separation 
be  resorted  to.  The  election  of  Mr. 
Lincoln,  according  to  the  logic  of  pas 
sion  which  rules  in  such  matters,  led  by 
inevitable  necessity  to  South  Carolina's 
secession  in  December,  1860.  The  same 
logic  determined  the  far  Southern  and 
South-western  States  to  imitate  her  ex 
ample,  and  the  Border  States  to  follow 
suit  when  Mr.  Lincoln  proposed  to 
march  his  troops  through  them  for  the 
crushing  of  the  new  Confederacy.  There 
was  not  a  little  of  the  logic  of  passion 
in  the  zeal  with  which  the  North  pre 
pared  to  do  battle  for  the  cause  of 
Union ;  and  the  important  point  to  re 
member  is  that,  while  the  political  the 
orist  must  use  a  different  sort  of  logic, 


ROBERT  E.  LEE  33 

the  impartial  historian  must  give  the 
logic  of  passion  its  full  weight  in  his 
endeavor  to  judge  men  and  nations  who 
have  been  actuated  by  it.  It  shows  an 
almost  naive  lack  of  human  experience 
to  argue  —  as  so  many  historians,  North 
ern  and  Southern,  do  —  from  the  charac 
ter  of  a  cause  viewed  in  the  abstract  to 
the  character  of  the  passionate  flesh- and- 
blood  actors  therein.  Such  a  proced 
ure  is  safe  enough  in  the  case  of  plain 
violations  of  municipal  and  moral  laws 
that  have  obtained  the  sanction  of  man 
kind  at  large,  but  it  is  unsafe  in  almost 
every  other  case.  Hence  it  follows  that 
nearly  all  the  popular  judgments  passed 
in  condemnation  upon  this  or  that  prom 
inent  actor  in  the  drama  of  secession  will 
have  to  be  revised,  in  so  far  as  such 
judgments  touch  the  moral  character. 
Even  in  the  case  of  Mr.  Jefferson  Davis, 
who  has  in  the  country  at  large  and  in 
the  outside  world  borne  much  of  the 
obloquy  of  having  represented  an  un- 


34  EOBEET  E.  LEE 

popular  cause,  the  verdict  of  history 
will  surely  be  that  he  was  a  thoroughly 
upright,  honorable  man,  who  did  what 
he  conceived  to  be  his  duty,  and  showed, 
on  the  whole,  remarkable  powers  in  the 
performance  thereof. 

This,  and  more  than  this,  the  world  has 
long  been  willing  to  say  of  General  Bob- 
ert  E.  Lee ;  but,  while  Lee's  noble  genius 
and  character  lift  him,  by  quite  unani 
mous  consent  above  all  other  Confeder 
ates,  it  cannot  be  forgotten  that  he 
would  never  have  been  willing  to  be 
judged  apart  from  the  men  who  fought 
and  labored  for  the  cause  that  was 
dear  to  him,  or  that  in  the  last  analysis 
there  is  no  real  reason  for  exempting 
him  from  any  moral  condemnation 
meted  out  to  a  man  like  Mr.  Davis.  It 
is  true  that  Lee  as  we  shall  soon  learn, 
did  not  believe  in  secession  or  in  slav 
ery, —  he  had  freed  his  own  negroes, — 
that  he  had  no  share  in  bringing  on 
the  war,  and  that  he  cannot  be  charged, 


EOBEET  E.  LEE  35 

as  Mr.  Davis  and  other  Southern  leaders 
have  been,  with  bad  statesmanship,  which, 
be  it  remembered,  is  not  bad  morals ;  but 
it  is  equally  true  that  he  did  not  be 
lieve  in  the  general  government's  right 
to  invade  and  coerce  the  Southern  States, 
that  he  thought  the  South  aggrieved,  and 
that  he  accepted  the  situation  in  which 
he  found  himself,  and  joined  his  people 
with  his  eyes  open.  If  secession,  under 
the  prevalence  of  the  compact  theory 
and  the  'conviction  that  his  right  to  his 
slave  property  was  imperilled,  casts  a 
moral  stain  upon  any  Southerner,  it 
must  cast  it  upon  Lee,  who  willingly 
fought  to  sustain  the  seceders,  though 
he  did  not  accept  their  arguments  fully, 
and  was  offered  an  excellent  opportunity 
to  serve  the  Union  cause.  Yet  very  few 
people  have  been  hardy  enough  to  vent 
ure  even  to  hint  that  there  is  any  stain 
upon  the  escutcheon  of  the  great  soldier 
who  led  the  heroic  Army  of  Northern 
Virginia  to  victory  after  victory. 


36  EOBEET  E.  LEE 

Our  conclusion  is  obvious.  In  this 
and  in  all  other  matters  not  settled  by 
the  consensus  of  civilized  opinion  or  the 
arbitrament  of  arms  —  neither  of  which 
methods  of  solution  had  operated  by 
1861  with  regard  to  secession,  or  indeed 
completely  with  regard  to  slavery  —  it  is 
idle  to  judge  men's  moral  characters 
according  to  our  estimate  of  the  cause 
they  serve.  We  must  judge  them  as 
men,  in  accordance  with  the  totality  of 
our  knowledge  concerning  their  lives. 
Judged  by  this  standard,  we  shall  find 
no  purer  life  ever  lived  than  that  of 
Robert  Lee,  no  matter  whether  or  not 
we  believe  secession  to  have  been  justi 
fiable  from  the  point  of  view  of  history, 
or  deny  the  right  of  a  man  to  let  his 
sentiments  get  the  better  of  his  reason. 

We  left  Lee  recalled  to  Washington 
in  February,  1861.  He  reached  Ar 
lington  on  March  1,  in  a  frame  of  mind 
more  easily  guessed  at  than  described. 
In  his  letters  home  he  had  for  some  time 


EOBEET  E.  LEE  37 

been  giving  his  views  of  the  perilous 
political  situation.  He  did  not  love  the 
Puritanism  of  New  England  any  more 
than  most  Southerners  then  did;  but, 
being  charitable  and  discreet,  he  did  not 
vent  his  opinions  in  harsh  words.  He 
believed  that  the  South  had  been  ag 
grieved  by  the  acts  of  the  North,  and  in 
this  belief  wrote  as  follows  to  his  son, 
whose  political  views  he  refrained  from 
tampering  with  :  — 

"I  feel  the  aggression,  and  am  witt 
ing  to  take  every  proper  step  for  re- 
dress.  It  is  the  principle  I  contend  for, 
not  individual  or  private  benefit.  As 
an  American  citizen,  I  take  great  pride 
in  my  country,  her  prosperity  and  her 
institutions,  and  would  defend  any  State 
if  her  rights  were  invaded.  But  I  can 
anticipate  110  greater  calamity  for  my 
country  than  a  dissolution  of  the  Union. 
It  would  be  an  accumulation  of  all  the 
evils  we  complain  of,  and^  am  willing 
to  sacrifice  everything  but  honor  for  its 


38  EOBEET  E.  LEE 

preservation.*  I  hope,  therefore,  that  all 
constitutional  means  will  be  exhausted 
before  there  is  a  resort  to  force.  Seces 
sion  is  nothing  but  revolution.  The 
framers  of  our  Constitution  never  ex 
hausted  so  much  labor,  wisdom,  and 
forbearance  in  its  formation,  and  sur 
rounded  it  with  so  many  guards  and 
securities,  if  it  was  intended  to  be 
broken  by  every  member  of  the  Con 
federacy  at  will.  .  .  .  Still,  a  Union 
that  can  only  be  maintained  by  swords 
and  bayonets,  and  in  which  strife  and 
civil  war  are  to  take  the  place  of 
brotherly  love  and  kindness,  has  no 
charm  for  me.  I  shall  mourn  for  my 
country  and  for  the  welfare  and  prog 
ress  of  mankind.  If  the  Union  is  dis 
solved  and  the  government  disrupted, 
I  shall  return  to  my  native  State  and 
share  the  miseries  of  my  people,  and, 
save  in  defence,  will  draw  my  sword  on 
none." 

The  spirit  animating  this  letter  is  ob- 


EOBEET  E.  LEE  39 

viously  beyond  praise.  Lee  could  not 
have  had  a  touch  of  the  " fire-eater" 
about  him,  which  is  one  reason  why  his 
memory  is  endeared  to  so  many  people 
in  the  North  ;  though,  for  the  matter  of 
that,  Mr.  Davis  was  not  an  ultra- violent 
man,  either,  and  was  chosen  President 
of  the  Confederacy  on  account  of  his 
moderation.  Nor  did  Lee  believe  in 
the  right  of  secession,  which  seems  to 
argue  his  possession  of  a  clearer  head  for 
political  questions  than  Mr.  Davis  and 
many  another  Southern  leader  had  at 
that  juncture.  But,  although  Lee  was  in 
the  right  according  to  the  logic  of  ab 
stract  political  reasoning,  and  although 
he  was  as  little  likely  to  be  swayed  by 
the  logic  of  passion  as  any  man  that 
ever  lived,  there  was  another  logic 
which,  as  this  letter  and  the  whole 
course  of  his  life  prove,  he  could 
not  resist, — the  logic  of  sympathy.  He 
loved  his  fellow- Southerners,  the  people 
among  whom  he  had  been  born  and 


40  EOBEET  E.  LEE 

with  whom  he  had  lived  for  much  of  his 
life,  the  people  with  whom  his  dearest 
interests  of  family  and  friendship  were 
bound  up.  He  might  deplore  the  po 
litical  actions  of  these  people ;  but  he 
believed  they  had  been  wronged, —  a 
natural  enough  belief,  considering  the 
trend  of  public  opinion  about  him, — 
and,  in  the  final  test  he  must  stand  or 
fall  with  them.  And,  in  the  last  analy 
sis,  he  was  a  States-rights  man ;  for  he 
"  would  defend  any  State  if  her  rights 
were  invaded,77  much  more  his  mother 
State,  Virginia. 

But  why,  it  may  be  and  has  been 
asked,  did  not  Lee  act  as  two  other 
Virginians  —  Winfield  Scott  and  George 
H.  Thomas  —  acted,  and  uphold  the  gov 
ernment  he  had  sworn  to  defend  ?  With 
out  criticising  the  motives  of  these  two 
distinguished  soldiers,  we  may  reply  by 
maintaining  that  they  were  not  men  of 
the  stamp  of  Lee, — they  were  not  men 
likely  to  be  greatly  influenced  by  the 


EOBEET  E.  LEE  41 

logic  of  sympathy.  Their  motives  in 
clinging  to  the  Union  had  probably 
the  moral  level  consonant  with  their 
general  characters  :  Lee's  motives  in  sur 
rendering  his  commission  and  siding  with 
his  State  had  also  the  moral  level  conso 
nant  with  his  general  character.  It 
takes  little  psychological  insight,  how 
ever,  to  perceive  that,  eminent  as  Scott 
and  Thomas  were,  they  were  not  men  of 
the  same  splendid  moral  and  spiritual 
class  with  Lee,  whose  utterances  some 
times  have  the  ring  of  a  great  moralist, 
like  Epictetus.*  Hence,  when  General 
Garfield  in  his  eulogy  on  Thomas,  in  com 
paring  Lee  with  the  latter,  confidently 
appealed  "from  the  Virginia  of  to-day 
to  the  Virginia  of  the  future ?  ?  to  reverse 
her  judgment  passed  upon  the  respective 
merits  of  her  two  great  sons,  he  was 

*Cf.,  for  example,  these  words  from  the  fine  letter  of 
March  6,  1864,  apropos  of  the  Dahlgren  prisoners:  "I 
think  it  better  to  do  right,  even  if  we  suffer  in  so  doing, 
than  to  incur  the  reproach  of  our  consciences  and  pos 
terity." 


42  EOBEET  E.  LEE 

more  eloquent  than  wise.  Virginia's 
verdict  will  never  be  reversed,  because 
her  sons  —  even  the  few  who,  like  the 
present  writer,  have  little  sympathy  with 
the  political  ideals  of  the  generation  just 
gone — have  taken  Lee  to  their  hearts  as 
a  peerless  exemplar  of  all  that  is  honor 
able  and  pure  and  exquisite  and  noble 
in.  human  life  and  character.  They  have 
never  put  General  Scott  or  General 
Thomas,  however  much  they  may  re 
spect  and  admire  them,  in  any  such 
category  ;  and,  should  they  ever  do  it,  it 
would  be  a  clear  sign  that  the  Mother  of 
Presidents,  or  perhaps  here  we  should 
say  of  generals,  is  in  her  intellectual 
dotage. 

Returning  now  to  Lee's  outward  life, 
we  may  be  very  sure  that  President 
Lincoln  had  no  more  anxious  watcher 
during  the  first  few  weeks  of  his  trying 
administration  than  the  quiet  soldier  at 
Arlington.  Whether  Lee  at  that  time 
understood  Lincoln's  intentions  fully  or 


EOBEET  E.  LEE  43 

at  all  gauged  his  powers  may  be  doubted, 
but  we  have  evidence  that  the  President 
through  General  Scott  had  formed  a  high 
opinion  of  Lee.  On  April  18,  Mr.  F.  P. 
Blair,  at  the  suggestion  of  the  Executive, 
visited  Colonel  Lee,  and  offered  him  the 
command  of  the  army  destined  for  the 
subjugation  of  the  Confederacy.  There 
can  be  no  question  as  to  the  substantial 
accuracy  of  this  statement ;  for  Lee's 
famous  letter  of  Feb.  25?  1868,  to  Mr. 
Eeverdy  Johnson  is  too  explicit  on  the 
point  to  leave  room  for  any  denials. 
Lee's  word  is  unassailable,  and  his  clear 
mind  and  innate  modesty  forbid  us  to 
believe  that  he  misunderstood  the  pur 
port  of  Mr.  Blair's  visit.  Besides,  in 
view  of  General  Scott's  high  opinion  of 
him,  and  of  the  fact  that  he  had  not 
been  in  haste  to  resign  his  commission, 
there  was  every  reason  why  the  offer 
should  have  been  made  him.  But  it 
came  in  vain.  "  After  listening  to  his 
remarks,"  wrote  Lee  to  Mr.  Johnson, 


44  EOBEET  E.  LEE 

"I  declined  the  offer  he  made  me  to 
take  command  of  the  army  that  was  to 
be  brought  into  the  field,  stating,  as 
candidly  and  courageously  as  I  could, 
that,  though  opposed  to  secession  and 
deprecating  war,  I  could  take  no  part  in 
an  invasion  of  the  Southern  States. " 

It  was  a  great  renunciation,  for  Lee 
had  no  illusions  as  to  the  power  of  the 
Union  and  the  weakness  of  the  Confed 
eracy  ;  and  he  loved  his  united  country 
and  the  army  which,  instead  of  leaving, 
by  a  twist  of  his  conscience,  he  might 
have  commanded.  That  conscience 
however,  was  not  made  to  be  twisted ; 
and  he  quietly  put  his  temptation  be 
hind  him.  Then  he  went  to  General 
Scott,  and  told  him  of  his  decision  in 
what  must  have  been,  considering  their 
relations,  a  still  more  trying  interview. 
It  has  indeed  been  claimed  that  Scott 
had  sent  for  Lee,  in  order  to  get  him 
to  declare  himself  on  one  side  or  the 
other.  This  may  or  may  not  be  true, 


EGBERT  E.  LEE  45 

but  any  effort  to  represent  Lee  as  vacil 
lating  is  idle.  He  was  merely  waiting 
for  an  overt  act  of  invasion, — waiting 
in  a  sort  of  dread  calm.  It  is  equally 
idle  to  argue  that,  because  he  sent  in 
his  resignation  from  the  recently  ac 
quired  colonelcy  of  the  First  Cavalry 
on  the  20th  of  April  in  a  most  touching 
letter  to  Scott,  and  on  the  22d  went  to 
Richmond  to  receive  on  the  following 
day  the  command  of  the  military  forces 
of  Virginia,  he  acted  with  an  easy  con 
science.  Between  the  18th?  the  date  of 
the  interviews  with  Blair  and  Scott,  and 
the  20th,  the  date  of  Lee's  resignation, 
acts  amounting  in  the  latter' s  opinion, 
as  we  learn  from  a  letter  to  his  brother 
Sidney  Smith,  to  a  beginning  of  hostil 
ities  had  actually  taken  place.  The 
President  had  declared  a  blockade  of 
Southern  ports,  a  Massachusetts  regi 
ment  had  entered  Maryland,  Pennsyl 
vania  troops  were  guarding  Washing 
ton.  To  Lee  this  meant  the  invasion. 


46  EOBEET  E.  LEE 

against  which  he  intended  to  fight,  and 
on  this  view  of  the  matter  it  would  have 
been  absurd  for  him  to  wait  to  hear  of 
.  the  fate  of  his  resignation.  For  aught 
he  knew,  Scott  might  arrest  him ;  yet 
gentlemen  have  been  known  to  argue, 
seemingly,  that  he  should  have  waited 
for  this  consummation.  It  would  be  as 
near  the  truth  to  argue  that  the  man 
who  had  written  those  touching  letters 
of  April  20  to  Scott  and  to  his  sister, 
Mrs.  Marshall  of  Baltimore,  who,  al 
though  her  husband  was  a  Union  man 
and  her  son  fought  for  the  North,  was 
fully  persuaded  that  no  one  could 
"whip  Bobert"  — letters  breathing  the 
tenderest  regret  at  the  step  he  was  tak 
ing, — was  seduced  by  the  bauble  of  a 
major  -  generalship  in  the  Virginian 
army,  and  was  in  unbecoming  haste  to 
rush  to  Bichmond  and  get  it. 

Get  it  he  did,  but  in  the  most  dignified 
way.  On  April  23  he  was  introduced 
to  the  Virginia  convention,  and  was  ad- 


EOBEET  E.  LEE  47 

dressed  by  its  President  in  fitting  terms. 
His  own  reply  was  worthy  of  Washing 
ton,  and  must  be  given  entire  :  — 

"Mr.  President  and  Gentlemen  of  the 
Convention, — Deeply  impressed  with  the 
solemnity  of  the  occasion  on  which  I 
appear  before  you,  and  profoundly 
grateful  for  the  honor  conferred  upon 
me,  I  accept  the  position  your  partiality 
has  assigned  me,  though  I  would  greatly 
have  preferred  that  your  choice  should 
have  fallen  on  one  more  capable.  Trust 
ing  to  Almighty  God,  an  approving  con 
science,  and  the  aid  of  my  fellow- citizens, 
I  will  devote  myself  to  the  defence  and 
service  of  my  native  State,  in  whose  be 
half  alone  would  I  have  ever  drawn  my 
sword. " 

If  ever  words  bore  the  accents  of  high 
truth  and  holy  purpose,  these  words  bear 
them.  It  is  no  wonder  that  the  conven 
tion  heard  them  with  delight,  and  that 
the  eyes  of  all  were  fastened  with  pleas 
ure  and  wonder  upon  the  stalwart,  manly 


48  EOBEET  E.  LEE 

soldier  that  uttered  them.  Alexander 
H.  Stephens,  Vice- President  of  the  Con 
federacy,  witnessed  the  ceremony,  and 
was  so  struck  by  the  hold  Lee  had  upon 
his  fellow- citizens  that  he  feared  that, 
unless  the  new  general  should  be  willing 
to  run  the  risk  of  losing  his  rank  in 
the  forces  of  the  Confederacy,  it  would 
be  difficult  to  get  Virginia  to  join  the 
former.  An  interview  with  the  modest 
officer  soon  convinced  him,  however, 
that  in  Lee?s  mind  place  and  power 
were  always  subordinate  to  duty, —  a 
word  which  he  once  declared  to  be  the 
sublimest  in  the  language.  On  May  25 
Lee  ceased  to  be  Virginia's  major-gen 
eral,  and  became  a  Confederate  briga 
dier,  no  higher  title  having  been  yet 
created  in  the  Southern  service.  He 
had  filled  the  interim  by  endeavoring 
to  organize  troops  and  arm  them,  en 
countering  and  subduing  in  these  labors 
far  greater  difficulties  than  were  ever 
presented  to  him  by  his  ambition. 


)r 
IV. 

LEE  found  Virginia  totally  unpre 
pared  for  the  conflict  at  hand.  Volun 
teers  in  large  numbers  were  forthcoming, 
but  there  was  a  woful  lack  of  arms. 
Fowling-pieces  and  rifles  had  to  be  used, 
and  the  cavalry  were  at  first  supplied 
with  roughly  made  lances  instead  of 
sabres.  The  condition  of  the  entire 
South  in  this  respect  was  almost  as  bad, 
as  we  learn  from  the  report  of  the  chief 
of  ordnance,  General  Josiah  Gorgas. 
Powder  especially  was  lacking  in  the 
arsenals,  practically  only  two  small 
stores,  relics  of  the  Mexican  War,  being 
accessible.  Yet  both  Gorgas  and  Lee 
triumphed  over  their  difficulties  ;  and  by 
the  end  of  May,  by  working  steadily 
and  with  great  patience  at  his  office  in 
Eichmond,  the  latter,  in  the  words  of  his 
chief  biographer,  General  Long,  "had 
organized,  equipped,  and  sent  to  the  field 
more  than  thirty  thousand  men,  and 


50  EOBEET  E.  LEE 

various  regiments  were  in  a  forward  state 
of  preparation."  At  this  time  Lee  was 
acting  Commander-in-chief  of  the  Confed 
eracy.  When  President  Davis,  after  the 
removal  of  the  capital  from  Montgomery 
to  Richmond,  took  charge  of  all  military 
movements  on  June  8,  the  Virginian 
general  remained  by  his  side  as  a  con 
stant  and  trusted  adviser.  This  was 
particularly  desirable,  not  only  on  ac 
count  of  Lee's  success  as  an  organizer, 
but  because  of  his  knowledge  of  the  to 
pography  of  his  State,  which  was  evi 
dently  destined  to  become  the  theatre 
of  the  first  operations  of  the  Union 
forces.  Though  he  chafed  at  not  being 
able  to  take  the  field,  he  gave  no  one  an 
opportunity  to  say  that  he  was  not  will 
ing  to  do  the  duty  that  lay  plainly  be 
fore  him. 

Against  the  long  defensive  line  of  the 
Confederacy  which  stretched  from  the 
swamps  of  the  seaboard  to  the  Allegha- 
nies,  the  authorities  at  Washington,  after 


EGBERT  E.  LEE  51 

some  hesitation,  directed  two  main  move 
ments, —  one  southward  toward  Rich 
mond  under  General  McDowell,  the  other 
under  General  George  B.  McClellan 
against  the  forces  of  Generals  Garnett 
and  Wise,  gathered  in  the  mountains  of 
what  is  now  West  Virginia.  President 
Davis  gave  his  attention  to  the  first 
movement,  General  Lee  to  the  second. 
The  latter  had  in  many  ways  the 
harder  task.  Garnett  was  soon  de 
feated  and  killed,  McClellan  being 
left  master  of  North-western  Virginia. 
Re -enforcements  were  hurried  to  the 
Confederates,  and  General  Loring  was 
sent  to  take  command.  Meanwhile  the 
defeat  of  Manassas  on  July  21  had 
caused  McClellan' s  transference,  with  a 
considerable  portion  of  his  troops,  to  the 
Army  of  the  Potomac,  and  had  infused 
an  unwarranted  confidence  into  the  en 
tire  Southern  people.  Even  the  calm 
Lee,  although  not  dazed,  was  greatly 
delighted,  and  wrote  his  congratulations 


52  EOBEET  E.  LEE 

to  Beauregard  and  Joe  Johnston  with 
out  a  trace  of  envy  at  their  good  fort 
une.  But  McClellan's  early  success 
had  seriously  weakened  the  Confederate 
chances  of  holding  to  the  Southern 
cause  the  mountain  people,  who  had  no 
sympathy  with  slavery ;  and  the  Con 
federate  forces  in  the  region  were  small, 
and  ineffectively  handled  by  generals 
who  in  two  cases,  at  least,  were  aspiring 
politicians.  Under  these  circumstances 
it  seemed  best  to  send  Lee  to  command 
in  "West  Virginia,  where  he  arrived 
early  in  August.  He  must  have  fore 
seen  the  difficulties  of  the  campaign, 
though  hardly  its  ultimate  failure. 

There  is  no  need  to  describe  in  detail 
the  vexatious  weeks  that  followed.  The 
two  rival  political  brigadiers  were  tact 
fully  treated,  but  in  vain ;  for  Lee, 
uncertain  of  the  administration  at  Rich 
mond,  did  not  assert  his  authority  to 
the  full.  Being  the  gentle,  considerate 
man  he  was,  he  could  hardly  have  acted 


EOBEET  E.  LEE  53 

otherwise;  but  one  feels  that  Washing 
ton  would  have  been  more  strenuous,  and 
one  discovers  here  the  single  weak  point 
in  Lee's  character  as  a  soldier,  but  per 
haps  the  chief  cause  of  his  charm, —  nay, 
his  glory  as  a  man.  He  could  not  be 
harsh  ;  and  so  he  let  time  slip  away,  ac 
cepting  Loring's  excuse  that  he  was  un 
prepared  to  move  his  troops  for  lack  of 
wagons.  Then  incessant  rains  came  on, 
the  ordinary  difficulties  of  the  region 
were  vastly  increased,  and  sickness  of  all 
sorts  more  than  decimated  the  troops. 
Lee  wrote  his  wife  on  Sept.  26,  1861 : 
"We  are  without  tents,  and  for  two 
nights  I  have  lain  buttoned  up  in  my 
overcoat.  To-day  my  tent  came  up,  and 
I  am  in  it ;  yet  I  fear  I  shall  not  sleep  for 
thinking  of  the  poor  men."  Still,  he 
preserved  his  courage  and  his  equanim 
ity,  and,  remembering  his  Mexican  War 
days,  did  some  most  venturesome  scout 
ing.  But  he  could  not  do  everything 
himself,  as  he  learned  on  September  12, 


54  EOBEET  E.  LEE 

when  he  planned  to  attack  the  Union 
forces  under  General  Reynolds  at  Cheat 
Mountain.  His  dispositions  were  well 
conceived  5  but,  as  so  often  in  his  career, 
they  were  foiled  by  the  failure  of  a  sub 
ordinate  to  do  his  part ;  for  a  certain 
colonel,  on  account  of  false  reports  as 
to  the  number  of  the  enemy's  troops  in 
trenched  on  the  mountain,  did  not  attack 
as  ordered.  A  flanking  movement  was 
thus  rendered  impossible,  a  direct  assault 
seemed  out  of  the  question,  and  the  total 
operation  amounted  to  nothing.  Yet 
Lee  had  no  reproaches  for  his  subor 
dinate  ;  and  his  letter  to  Governor 
Letcher,  describing  his  own  mortifica 
tion,  is  a  greater  tribute  to  his  character 
than  any  victory  would  have  been. 

With  equal  fortitude  he  bore  his  dis 
appointment  in  the  subsequent  move 
ments  in  the  Kanawha  Yalley.  The 
political  brigadiers  were  making  no 
progress  against  that  efficient  soldier, 
General  Eosecrans  ;  and  Lee  determined 


EOBEET  E.   LEE  55 

that  his  own  presence  was  necessary. 
He  arrived  on  the  scene  early  in  October, 
and  forced  his  recalcitrant  generals  into 
some  sort  of  union,  fortifying  himself 
strongly  on  a  mountain  crest  parallel 
with  that  occupied  by  Bosecrans,  who 
was  taking  the  offensive.  His  engineer 
ing  skill  stood  him  in  such  stead  that 
the  enemy  postponed  attacking  until  re- 
enforcements  under  Loring  brought  up 
the  Confederate  forces  to  about  fifteen 
thousand,  and  made  the  two  armies 
nearly  equal.  Under  these  circumstances 
the  Union  general  remained  quiet ;  while 
Lee,  who  never  liked  inaction,  deter 
mined  to  try  a  well-devised  flank  move 
ment.  But  Eosecrans  slipped  away  by 
night ;  and  pursuit,  though  ordered,  was 
soon  abandoned.  Winter  was  now  at 
hand,  when  operations,  difficult  enough 
in  summer,  would  be  impossible.  There 
was,  then,  nothing  to  do  but  to  acknowl 
edge  the  campaign  a  failure.  The  Con 
federate  government  withdrew  its  troops, 


56  EOBEKT  E.  LEE 

and  sent  them  elsewhere.  Lee,  whom 
the  press  abused,  and  even  former 
friends  began  to  regard  as  overrated, 
was  assigned  to  command  the  Depart 
ment  of  South  Carolina,  Georgia,  and 
Florida  5  and  her  western  counties  were 
lost  to  the  Old  Dominion  forever.  It 
must  have  been  a  crushing  blow  to  Lee 
at  the  time,  but  he  bore  it  uncomplain 
ingly.  His  biographer  can  fortunately 
look  at  the  whole  affair  in  another  light. 
Early  failure  may  have  taught  Lee  the 
very  lessons  which  their  easy  success  at 
First  Manassas  so  disastrously  failed  to 
teach  the  Southern  people.  And,  when 
all  is  said,  no  commander,  however 
great,  can  succeed  against  bad  roads, 
bad  weather,  sickness  of  troops,  lack  of 
judgment  and  harmony  among  subordi 
nates,  and  a  strong,  alert  enemy.  Yet 
this  is  what  Lee  was  expected  to  do. 
We  at  least  need  not  indulge  in  such 
fatuous  criticism,  and  may  instead  recall 
the  interesting  fact  that  General  Lee 


EOBEET  E.  LEE  57 

bought  his  famous  war-horse,  Traveller, 
during  this  disastrous  campaign.  Trav 
eller  cuts  a  much  more  important  figure 
in  the  eyes  of  posterity  than  the  news 
paper  critics  of  1861. 

Lee's  work  in  his  new  command  was 
to  be  of  a  sort  familiar  to  him  from  past 
experience.  It  had  become  apparent 
that,  unless  the  coast  defences  were 
strengthened,  Southern  ports  would  soon 
be  effectively  blockaded,  and  Union 
troops  landed  at  many  points.  But  how 
were  these  defences  to  be  rendered  avail 
able  with  few  troops  and  poor  guns? 
This  was  Lee's  problem ;  and  with  his 
usual  courage,  and  his  remarkable  ex 
ecutive  resources,  he  proceeded  to  solve 
it  in  a  very  creditable  fashion.  A  call 
for  men  was  answered  by  the  Carolinians 
and  Georgians ;  and  a  blockade  runner 
brought  him  rifles  and  a  few,  very  few, 
good  cannon.  Then  he  made  a  careful 
study  of  the  coast  line,  and,  abandon 
ing  exposed  situations  and  islands,  con- 


58  EOBEET  E.  LEE 

structed  a  strong  interior  line  of  defences 
against  which  war- vessels  and  gunboats 
could  do  no  damage.  He  concentrated 
his  strength  at  points  that  could  easily 
support  one  another,  laying  special 
stress  upon  the  safety  of  Charleston 
and  Savannah.  For  example,  to  quote 
in  substance  General  Long,  Coosawhat- 
chie,  where  Lee7s  headquarters  were, 
could  communicate  with  either  Charles 
ton  or  Savannah  by  railroad  in  two  or 
three  hours,  while  intermediate  posi 
tions  could  be  re- enforced  from  positions 
contiguous  to  them. 

The  results  of  these  plans,  which  seem 
as  simple  as  Lee's  manners  and  the  tin 
ware  used  at  the  table  of  his  modest 
headquarters,  but  which  were  really 
masterly  in  their  grasp  of  the  situation 
and  the  resources  at  hand,  were  soon 
apparent  both  to  the  enemy  and  to  the 
great  soldier's  critics.  Many  of  the  de 
fences  erected  before  he  took  charge  had 
been  ineffectual,  and  points  had  been 


EOBEET  E.  LEE  59 

captured  in  BTorth  Carolina  by  the  Fed 
eral  forces.  Late  in  1861  Port  Boyal,  a 
most  important  harbor  in  South  Caro 
lina,  fell  an  easy  victim.  The  conse 
quent  evacuation  of  Hilton  Head  ex 
posed  Savannah,  and  Charleston  was 
also  in  danger.  But  the  works  erected 
by  Lee,  at  various  points  that  need  not 
be  detailed,  soon  changed  the  aspect  of 
affairs.  Eeconnoissances  sent  out  by  the 
commanders  of  the  Union  fleet  were  met 
in  every  direction  by  frowning  batteries. 
The  Federals  could  make  comparatively 
little  progress,  and  the  spirits  of  the  peo 
ple  of  South  Carolina  and  Georgia  rose 
accordingly.  Both  Charleston  and  Sa 
vannah  were  rapidly  fortified,  with  the 
result  that  they  did  not  fall  until  the 
close  of  the  war,  and  that  a  region  ab 
solutely  necessary  for  the  provisioning 
of  the  Confederate  armies  was  left  free 
for  cultivation.  It  would  of  course  be 
unjust  to  affirm  that  all  this  was  accom 
plished  by  Lee  alone;  but  it  is  quite 


60  BOBEKT  E.  LEE 

clear  that  his  was  the  master  mind  that 
laid  down  the  plans  of  defence  success 
fully  followed,  and  that  his  personal 
presence  at  this  and  that  point  of  the 
extended  line  contributed  much  to  the 
rapidity  with  which  it  was  made  effi 
cient.  But  in  March,  1862,  he  was  re 
called  to  Richmond  for  more  needed 
work,  not,  however,  before  he  had  vis 
ited  his  father7  s  grave  on  Cumberland 
Island. 

His  return  to  his  native  State  meant 
that  he  was  to  see  his  invalid  wife  once 
more,  but  under  very  trying  circum 
stances  ;  for  beautiful  Arlington  had  been 
confiscated,  and  his  family  were  exiles. 
Even  his  calm  spirit  revolted  at  the  fate 
that  had  befallen  the  home  of  his  wife 
and  children;  and,  in  his  references  to 
the  matter,  he  came  as  near  to  bitter 
ness  as  he  could  come.  His  strong  tem 
per  rebelled  still  more  at  such  acts  of 
devastation  as  affected  private  citizens 
or  communities,  for  his  own  ideals  as 


EOBEET  E.  LEE  61 

to  the  proper  mode  of  conducting  war 
were  of  the  highest  and  noblest  kind. 
He  forbade  pillage  or  destruction  of  any 
sort,  whether  he  was  in  the  enemy's 
country  or  not.  What  he  would  have 
replied  to  Sheridan's  brutal  remarks  to 
Bismarck  during  the  Franco-German 
War  on  the  necessity  for  devastation  — 
remarks  at  which  even  the  man  of 
" blood  and  iron"  almost  winced  —  is 
not  hard  to  imagine ;  but  he  always 
ended  by  controlling  his  feelings,  and 
by  redoubling  his  energies  in  order  to 
fight  like  a  master  of  the  art  —  not  the 
trade  —  of  war.  It  was  never  his  habit 
even  to  refer  to  his  opponents  harshly. 
His  usual  name  for  them  appears  in 
a  query  he  once  addressed  to  his  sub 
sequent  biographer, —  "Now,  Colonel 
Long,  how  can  we  get  at  those  people  f" 
On  one  occasion  he  stated  positively 
that  he  had  never  seen  the  day  when  he 
did  not  pray  for  them. 

In  Eichmond^  Lee  settled  down  to  di- 


62  EOBEET  E.  LEE 

recting  all  the  military  operations  of 
the  Confederacy,  under  the  supervision 
of  President  Davis,  who,  being  a  gradu 
ate  of  "West  Point  and  a  soldier  of  dis 
tinction  in  the  Mexican  War,  was  not 
disposed  to  be  a  merely  nominal  com- 
mander-in- chief.  It  speaks  well  for 
Lee's  serenity  of  character  that  he  could 
work  with  so  little  friction  in  such  a 
situation.  Whether  he  would  have  ac 
complished  more  by  a  strenuous  asser 
tion  of  his  military  genius  must  always 
remain  a  matter  in  doubt,  although  such 
assertion  could  only  have  come  later. 
Certain  it  is,  however,  that  he  set  dili 
gently  to  work  to  get  men  and  supplies 
in  readiness  to  meet  McClellan's  ad 
vance  up  the  Peninsula.  Outside  of 
Virginia  the  fall  of  Eoanoke  Island  and 
of  Forts  Henry  and  Donelson  made 
affairs  look  gloomy  ;  but,  in  the  pitched 
battles  likely  to  ensue,  the  victors  of 
Manassas  found  something  to  look  for 
ward  to. 


ROBERT  E.  LEE  63 

There  is  no  need  to  describe  here 
Stonewall  Jackson- s  movements  in  the 
Valley  of  Virginia  or  the  slow  advance 
of  McClellan  toward  Kichinond.  Lee 
kept  in  full  communication  with  Jack 
son,  to  whom  he  gave  a  free  hand ;  but 
he  could  not  agree  with  the  plan  of 
General  Joe  Johnston,  who  was  to  com 
mand  against  McClellan,  to  the  effect 
that  a  stand  should  be  taken  in  front 
of  Richmond,  with  an  army  made  equal 
to  McClellan' s  by  the  union  with  the 
troops  already  assigned  to  the  Penin 
sula  service  of  all  available  forces  in 
North  and  South  Carolina  and  Georgia. 
In  other  words,  Johnston  wished  to  risk 
the  fortunes  of  the  Confederacy  on  one 
blow.  He  proposed  to  withdraw  troops 
from  Norfolk,  and  would  of  course  have 
used  the  forces  near  Richmond.  In 
short,  he  would  have  stripped  the  At 
lantic  coast  region  bare.  It  was  a  dar 
ing  plan,  on  which  Mr.  Davis  wished  to 
get  all  the  light  he  could.  So  a  council 


64  EOBEET   E.  LEE 

was  held,  in  which  Johnston  unfolded 
his  scheme  and  Lee  opposed  it.  The 
latter  objected  to  weakening  South 
Carolina  and  Georgia,  which  he  had 
just  made  strong  enough  to  resist  at 
tack  ;  and  he  believed  that  a  small 
army  could  be  well  handled  in  the  Pen 
insula.  This  opinion  —  which  is  partly 
to  be  explained  on  the  score  of  Lee's 
own  peculiar  genius  as  a  strategist, — 
appealed  to  Mr.  Davis,  who  naturally 
did  not  wish  to  abandon  Norfolk  or 
run  serious  risks  elsewhere.  John 
ston's  scheme,  indeed,  strikes  one  as 
grandiose ;  but,  while  it  might  have  led 
to  signal  victory  and  to  a  temporary 
paralysis  of  Union  efforts,  there  is  little 
reason  to  believe  that  it  would  have 
brought  immediate  peace.  Lee  would 
probably  have  been  nearer  to  this  con 
summation,  had  he  won  at  Gettysburg, 
than  Johnston  would  have  been,  had  he 
lured  McClellan  to  Eichmond,  and  then 
annihilated  him. 


EOBEET  E.  LEE  65 

Be  this  as  it  may,  Johnston  was 
ordered  to  the  Peninsula,  where  Mc- 
Clellan  did  not  show  himself  niggardly 
in  the  time  expended  on  taking  York- 
town  and  Williamsburg.  Before  the 
superior  hosts  of  the  enemy  the  Con 
federate  commander  retreated  steadily, 
and  in  his  always  masterly  fashion,  to 
the  Chickahominy  Eiver,  Norfolk  being 
thus,  after  all,  lost  to  the  enemy. 
Meanwhile  Jackson's  wonderful  dash 
down  the  Valley  had  kept  McDowell 
from  joining  McClellan ;  and  upon  the 
latter  leader  Johnston  now  turned,  as 
soon  as  he  found  that  part  of  the  Union 
forces  had  crossed  the  Chickahominy. 
The  great  battle  of  Seven  Pines  took 
place  011  May  31,  in  which  there  was 
tremendous  fighting  with  no  decisive 
result.  Lee,  eager  to  be  upon  the  field, 
had  volunteered  his  services  to  John 
ston,  and  rode  out  from  Eichmond  with 
President  Davis  to  the  scene  of  the 
engagement.  He  took  no  part  in  the 


66  EOBEKT  E.  LEE 

fighting;  but,  when  he  learned  that 
Johnston  had  been  wounded,  and  re 
membered  that  G.  W.  Smith,  next  in 
command,  was  in  bad  health,  he  would 
have  been  more  than  human,  had  he 
not  reflected  with  pleasure  that  his 
time  had  probably  come.  Sure  enough, 
on  the  next  day,  June  1,  after  some 
indecisive  fighting,  the  command  of  the 
army  on  the  Chickahorniny  devolved 
upon  General  Eobert  E.  Lee,  now  for 
the  first  time  placed  in  a  position  that 
would  enable  him  to  employ  to  the 
utmost  his  splendid  military  gifts.  Late 
in  the  day  Lee  rode  to  Smith's  head 
quarters,  and  relieved  him ;  but  the 
great  man  in  him  had  previously  tri 
umphed  over  the  warrior,  for  in  the 
morning  he  had  written  Smith  a  most 
encouraging  letter,  inciting  him  to  win 
a  decisive  victory  before  he  himself 
could  reach  the  field.  Most  men  would 
have  desired  a  victory  for  their  side; 
but  they  would  have  refrained  from 


EOBEET  E.  LEE  67 

wishing,  even  on  paper,  that  that  vic 
tory  should  be  pushed  forward  a  few 
hours,  and  thus  fall  to  another  com 
mander. 


V. 

LEE'S  first  duty  upon  assuming  com 
mand  of  the  Army  of  Northern  Virginia 
was  the  unpleasant  one  of  having  to  re 
sist  the  general  wish  and  advice  of  his 
officers  to  fall  back  upon  a  stronger 
position  nearer  to  Richmond.  He  felt 
that  such  action  was  unnecessary  and 
impolitic,  but  he  also  felt  that  he  did 
not  yet  have  the  confidence  of  his  offi 
cers  and  troops.  Under  such  circum 
stances  it  was  a  bold  thing  for  him,  in 
opposition  to  the  judgment  of  those 
whom  he  usually  trusted,  to  decide  to 
stand  his  ground;  but  he  did  it  with 
excellent  results.  His  decision  once 
reached,  he  set  about  obtaining  re-en 
forcements  in  his  usual  vigorous  fashion. 
He  also  sent  out  that  brave  cavalryman, 
General  J.  E.  B.  Stuart,  to  obtain  infor 
mation  as  to  McClellan's  forces  and  situa 
tion.  Stuart  executed  a  brilliant  circuit 
of  the  whole  Union  army,  and  Lee  knew 


EOBEET  E.  LEE  69 

that  he  had  another  great  lieutenant  be 
sides  Jackson.  He  now  prepared  to  take 
the  offensive. 

The  complicated  movements  that  fol 
lowed  can  be  given  here  only  in  a  large 
way.  Jackson  was  called  in  with  his 
forces,  and  attended  a  council  of  war 
in  Eichmond  along  with  Longstreet  and 
the  two  Hills.  Lee  was  determined  to 
leave  Eichmond  more  or  less  exposed, 
because,  with  his  faculty  for  divining  the 
plans  and  probable  actions  of  his  adver 
sary,  he  did  not  believe  that  McClellan 
would  move  upon  the  city.  He  seems, 
however,  to  have  been  mistaken,  accord 
ing  to  some  authorities,  in  his  views  as 
to  McClellan7  s  ultimate  disposition  of  his 
troops.  However  this  may  be,  the  Con 
federates  on  the  26th  of  June  began  a 
well- conceived  attack,  which  was  not 
successful,  owing  to  Jackson's  inability  to 
bring  up  his  men  in  time  to  turn  the 
right  flank  of  the  Federals.  "  Stone 
wall  ??  had  overestimated  the  marching 


70  EOBEET  E.  LEE 

powers  of  his  fatigued  veterans.  Thus, 
as  so  often,  Lee's  plans  were  upset  by  a 
subordinate's  failure  to  do  his  part ;  and 
A.  P.  Hill's  gallant  but  unwise  attack 
at  Beaver  Dam  Creek  was  disastrously 
repulsed.  The  next  day  Jackson's  ap 
pearance  was  partly  neutralized  in  its 
effects  by  the  general  ignorance  that 
seemed  to  prevail  regarding  the  country. 
But,  finally,  he  got  into  the  tremendous 
attack  on  Porter's  corps  which  goes  by 
the  name  of  the  battle  of  Games' s  Mill. 
After  several  hours  of  fierce  fighting, 
Lee  ordered  a  general  advance ;  and  the 
day  was  won,  but  with  nearly  even  losses 
on  both  sides.  It  took  immense  exer 
tions  on  the  part  of  the  Confederate 
commander  to  dislodge  Porter's  inferior 
numbers  ;  but  his  superiority  to  his  Fed 
eral  adversary,  McClellan,  is  conspicuous, 
when  the  latter' s  failure  to  support  his 
gallant  officer  effectively  is  fully  real 
ized.  Lee  was  thus  left  in  complete 
command  of  the  north  bank  of  the 


EOBEET  E.  LEE  71 

Chickahominy ;  but  he  had  paid  dearly 
for  a  success  which  might  have  been 
much  greater,  had  he  been  properly  sec 
onded.  Even  now  McClellan  had  a  fine 
opportunity  to  capture  Eichmond ;  but 
he  was  bent  upon  retreat  to  the  James, 
so  that  he  might  make  connection  with 
his  gunboats. 

Lee  was  a  comparatively  long  time 
(twenty-four  hours)  in  guessing  his  op 
ponent's  intentions.  He  has  been  criti 
cised  for  not  using  his  cavalry  to  ob 
tain  the  necessary  information,  but  such 
use  of  cavalry  does  not  appear  to  have 
been  much  made  at  that  time,  and  the 
breaking  up  of  the  York  Eiver  Eail- 
road,  on  which  Stuart  was  engaged,  was 
designed  to  cut  McClellan  off  from  his 
previous  base  of  supplies.  Besides,  in 
structions  had  been  given  subordinates 
to  watch  the  Federals,  and  report  their 
movements, — orders  which  were  not,  it 
would  seem,  properly  obeyed.  On  the 
whole,  then,  Lee  must  be  absolved  from 


72  EOBEET  E.  LEE 

blame  ;  and,  certainly,  the  Confederate 
failure  on  June  29  to  hamper  seriously 
the  retreating  Federals  was  due  again  to 
the  lack  of  vigor  of  subordinates,  Long- 
street  included.  Again  on  the  30th,  at 
Frazier's  Farm,  Lee  was  not  properly 
supported  ;  and  McClellan's  army  gained 
Malvern  Hill, —  a  position  from  which 
it  could  not  be  dislodged  in  spite  of  the 
hard  fighting  of  the  Confederates  on 
July  1.  Yet  McClellan  retreated  in  the 
night,  for  all  the  world  like  a  whipped 
commander,  and  finally  halted  only  at 
Harrison's  Landing,  where  he  was  safe 
under  the  fire  of  his  gunboats.  Thus 
ended  the  famous  Seven  Days'  fighting 
around  Eichmond. 

Lee  was  not  satisfied  with  the  results 
of  the  campaign,  although  the  Southern 
people  were  abundantly  so,  and  made 
him  their  hero  for  once  and  all.  In  the 
main,  the  results,  especially  from  a  polit 
ical  point  of  view,  were  superb.  Eich 
mond  was  relieved ;  and  the  great  Army 


EGBERT  E.  LEE  73 

of  the  Potomac  had  been  driven  to  seek 
a  new  base  of  supplies,  and  would  not 
speedily  take  the  offensive  again.  But 
Lee  thought  that  his  opponent  should 
have  been  routed.  Opinions  differ  as  to 
whether  he  did  not  overrate  his  chances 
of  success  5  and  some  of  his  operations, 
particularly  the  attack  at  Malvern 
Hill,  have  been  unfavorably  criticised. 
These  are  matters  which  the  specialists 
must  continue  to  debate ;  but  it  is  hard 
to  resist  the  conclusion  that  Lee  was 
right  in  believing  that  with  proper  sup 
port  he  could  nearly,  if  not  quite,  have 
inflicted  a  crushing  defeat  instead  of 
merely  checking  McClellan  and  turning 
him  away  from  Richmond, —  a  result 
largely  due,  it  would  seem,  to  that  com 
mander's  lack  of  forward-pushing  will.* 
In  the  fighting  of  June  30,  with  McClel 
lan  absent  from  the  field, — almost  as 

*Tlie  reader  may  be  interested  to  know  that  General 
McClellan's  headquarters  during  a  portion  of  this  fight 
ing  were  at  a  farm  owned  by  the  writer's  father.  The 
unfavorable  views  of  McClellan  expressed  in  these 


74  EOBEET  E.  LEE 

characteristic  a  habit  of  his  as  that  of 
exaggerating  the  forces  of  the  Confeder 
ates, —  and  Stonewall  Jackson  sluggish 
in  his  movements,  the  goddess  of  Fort 
une  smiled  upon  the  Union  cause  in 
such  a  bland  fashion  as  to  make  the 
efforts  of  Lee's  critics  fruitless,  when 
they  tell  us  that  he  overestimated  his 
powers.  There  was  a  chance  for  a  vic 
tory  on  that  day  that  might  have  led  to 
something  still  more  crushing.  At  any 
rate,  the  commander  who  was  not  absent 
from  the  field  appears  to  our  untrained 
eyes  as  a  magnificent  general,  ungra 
ciously  hampered  by  fate.  He  ap 
peared  to  his  own  soldiers,  however, 
an  all- conquering  hero  ;  and  he  himself 
in  his  proclamation  to  his  splendid 
troops,  veterans  already  and  destined 
to  give  him  as  loyal  and  efficient  sup- 
pages—views  that  will  seem  odd  in  a  Southern  book— 
are  not  due,  however,  to  injuries  done  to  the  above-men 
tioned  estate,  which,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  suffered  nearly 
as  much  from  subsequent  occupation  by  the  Confed 
erates. 


EOBEET  E.  LEE  75 

port  in  battle  after  battle  as  ever  great 
leader  received,  returned  the  compli 
ment  in  the  most  generous  fashion.  But 
the  army  that  had  retreated  had  fought 
superbly,  too,  and  had  preserved  its 
fighting  qualities  better  than  the  elated 
Southerners  then  supposed.  How  could 
it  have  been  otherwise,  when  Americans 
stood  pitted  against  Americans  ? 

Meanwhile  the  Federal  government, 
which  was  hampering  itself  by  bad 
methods  of  raising  troops  and  by  an  un 
wise  choice  of  a  general  military  adviser, 
had  organized  the  Army  of  Virginia 
under  General  John  Pope,  with  whom 
McClellan  was  to  join  when  he  had 
extricated  his  forces.  Pope  threatened 
the  Piedmont  region  about  Charlottes- 
ville,  and  issued  proclamations  that  in 
censed  both  his  enemies  and  his  own 
soldiers ;  but  dislike  of  the  braggart's 
personality  could  not  blind  Lee  to  the 
fact  that  his  army  was  a  menace  to  Eich- 
mond.  He  accordingly  sent  Jackson  to 


76  EOBEET  E.  LEE 

Gordonsville  with  about  twelve  thou 
sand  men,  and  himself  watched  over 
McClellan,  who  again  began  to  retreat, 
this  time  in  obedience  to  directions  from 
Washington.  This  left  Lee  free  to  join 
Jackson  by  the  middle  of  August,  in 
order  to  deal  with  Pope.  It  was  pro 
posed  to  strike  the  Federals  near  the 
Eapidan  Eiver  ;  but  captured  papers  re 
vealed  the  Confederate  plans,  and  Pope 
retreated  toward  the  Eappahannock,  on 
the  banks  of  which  river  Lee  caught  up 
with  him  by  August  21.  The  move? 
ments  that  followed  are  too  complicated 
for  treatment  in  a  sketch  like  the  pres 
ent.  Pope  seems  to  have  been  bewil 
dered  himself  and  to  have  had  poor 
advice  from  Washington ;  while  his 
troops  had  nothing  of  the  solidarity  of 
a  regular  army  such  as  that  of  Lee, 
which  made  up  for  its  lack  of  clothes 
and  food  by  its  enthusiasm  and  endur 
ance.  Lee,  on  the  other  hand,  was 
flushed  with  success,  and  knew  that  with 


EGBERT  E.  LEE  77 

Jackson  to  help  him  he  could  accom 
plish  great  results.  In  his  confidence 
he  divided  his  army,  to  give  Jackson  an 
opportunity  to  make  a  flank  movement 
on  Pope's  rear,  and  hold  him  at  bay 
until  he  himself  was  ready  to  offer 
battle.  It  was  a  rash  procedure,  and 
might  have  been  dearly  paid  for  if  it 
had  been  made  against  a  greater  antago 
nist.  But  after  five  days  the  ventur 
ous  chieftain  reaped  the  reward  of  his 
courage  and  of  his  unerring  ability  to 
profit  by  an  opponent's  mistakes.  The 
Federal  forces  were  completely  routed 
on  August  30  upon  the  same  field  of  Ma- 
nassas  that  had  witnessed  the  first  great 
Confederate  victory.  Pope's  army  took 
refuge  at  Washington,  while  Lee  paused 
for  a  moment  to  determine  what  use  to 
make  of  his  great  success.  In  three 
months  he  had  practically  cleared  Vir 
ginia  of  about  two  hundred  thousand 
Federal  soldiers  with  less  than  half  that 
number.  Was  it  not  time  to  carry  the 
war  into  the  enemy's  country1? 


78  EOBEET  E.  LEE 

Lee  was  not  long  in  making  up  his 
mind  that  an  advance  into  Maryland 
with  his  seasoned,  eager  troops  would 
certainly  postpone  Federal  attempts  to 
reinvade  Virginia,  and  thus  favor  the 
recuperation  of  the  latter  State,  while, 
in  case  of  victory,  insuring  an  advan 
tageous  position  for  future  movements, 
and  perhaps  inciting  the  Confederate 
sympathizers  in  Maryland  to  attempt  to 
withdraw  that  Commonwealth  from  the 
Union.  His  letter  to  Mr.  Davis  of  Sep 
tember  3  outlined  his  plans,  and  won 
the  executive  consent  after  the  army 
was  in  motion  ;  while  the  shorter  one  of 
the  7th,  from  the  neighborhood  of  Fred 
erick,  indicated  that  he  did  not  antici 
pate  any  permanent  success  with  the 
Marylanders.  He  issued  to  the  latter, 
however,  a  very  fine  proclamation, 
matching  the  dignified  general  orders 
given  a  few  days  before  to  his  own 
confident  troops. 

Meanwhile  the   army  of  about  forty- 


EOBEET  E.  LEE  79 

five  thousand  men,  undismayed  by  short 
ness  of  supplies,  especially  of  shoes, 
began  its  forward  march  on  September  3. 
Lee  marched  also,  or  rode  in  ambulance ; 
for  a  fall  from  his  frightened  horse  had 
injured  his  right  hand  to  such  an  extent 
that  it  was  some  time  before  he  could 
hold  a  bridle.  The  Potomac  was  crossed 
on  the  5th  to  the  tune  of  "  Maryland, 
my  Maryland."  From  Frederick,  Jack 
son  was  despatched  to  capture  Harper's 
Ferry,  which  he  did  on  the  15th,  the 
Federal  commander  having  been  ordered 
to  maintain  his  position  in  what  proved 
to  be  a  complete  trap.  This  operation, 
however,  weakened  Lee,  against  whom 
McClellan  was  now  advancing ;  for  it 
delayed  any  move  for  the  capture  either 
of  Harrisburg  or  of  Baltimore,  and  left 
him  with  scattered  forces.  Yet  Lee,  as 
we  see  from  his  subsequent  report, 
deemed  the  reduction  of  Harper's  Ferry 
absolutely  necessary.  The  correctness  of 
his  judgment  has  been  questioned ;  but  it 


80  EOBEKT  E.  LEE 

does  seem  that  a  hostile  force  of  ten  or 
twelve  thousand  might  have  been  a  seri 
ous  menace  to  the  Confederates  in  case 
of  an  enforced  retreat  over  the  Potomac 
in  consequence  of  a  Federal  victory,  and 
there  was  an  excellent  chance  of  bag 
ging  prisoners.  Then,  too.  Lee  probably 
counted  on  Federal  evacuation  of  the 
post,  which  was  only  reasonable.  Such 
evacuation  took  place  at  the  beginning 
of  the  Gettysburg  campaign. 

It  is  certain,  however,  that  hostile  for 
tune  had  more  to  do  with  the  failure  of 
this  Maryland  campaign  than  any  mis 
take  made  by  Lee.  Two  copies  of  that 
commander's  order  outlining  his  plans 
had  been  sent  to  General  D.  II.  Hill. 
One  of  these,  by  the  merest  accident, 
was  found  by  a  Federal  soldier  and  car 
ried  to  McClellan.  He  at  once  dis 
played  an  energy  rather  unusual  for 
him,  and  attacked  Hill  at  Boonsborough 
on  Sunday,  the  14th.  Fortunately,  Lee 
was  quick  enough  to  re -enforce  his  gal- 


EOBEET  E.  LEE  81 

lant  officer  by  about  four  thousand  men 
under  Longstreet ;  and  the  Confederates 
managed  to  hold  their  mountain  top. 
But  affairs  looked  desperate  until  the 
news  came  that  Harper's  Ferry  had 
been  taken,  and  that  Jackson  was  has 
tening  back.  Then  Lee,  with  his  char 
acteristic  cool  rashness,  determined  to 
give  battle  at  Sharpsburg,  though  his 
divisions  were  still  separated  and  his 
enemy  was  in  force.  He  has  been  much 
criticised  for  not  retreating,  and  has 
been  accused  of  underestimating  the 
fighting  qualities  of  the  soldiers  opposed 
to  him.  The  latter  charge  is  doubtless 
true,  but  the  fault  was  not  idiosyncratic. 
It  was  determined  by  well-known  South 
ern  traits,  and  should  hardly  be  called 
a  fault,  since  it  has  unquestionably  led 
to  more  victories  than  defeats.  Besides, 
Lee  doubtless  counted  more  on  Mc- 
Clellan's  mistakes, —  a  more  reasonable 
ground  of  confidence ;  and,  fighting  for 
political  motives,  he  was  not  inclined  to 


82  EOBEET  E.  LEE 

throw  away  even  a  bare  chance  of  win 
ning  a  victory,  or  at  least  proving  that, 
though  shaken  off,  he  was  an  antagonist 
whom  it  would  be  prudent  to  compound 
with  ere  he  should  gather  himself  for 
another  spring.  But,  after  all,  settling 
or  not  settling  such  matters  in  one's 
closet  is  a  very  different  thing  from 
settling  them  on  the  field ;  and,  even  if 
Lee  was  unduly  rash,  it  is  as  plain  as 
anything  in  history  that  he  fought  the 
battle  of  Sharpsburg,  or  Antietam,  on 
September  17  with  magnificent  skill. 
Mr.  John  C.  Eopes,  perhaps  his  ablest 
critic,  declares  emphatically,  "Of  Gen 
eral  Lee's  management  of  the  battle 
there  is  nothing  but  praise  to  be  said." 
It  was  an  enormously  bloody  conflict, 
the  Confederates  losing  about  one-fifth 
of  the  troops  within  reach, — i.e.,  eight 
thousand  out  of  forty  thousand, —  the 
Federals  a  slightly  less  fraction  of  their 
seventy  thousand  within  reach,  but  over 
a  fourth  of  the  forty-six  thousand  who 


EOBEET  E.  LEE  83 

encountered  Lee's  thirty -one  thousand 
in  desperate  grapple.  Yet,  after  all  this 
carnage,  it  was  really  only  a  drawn  bat 
tle  ;  and  the  next  morning,  though  Lee 
was  eager  to  fight,  his  best  lieutenants 
pronounced  against  attempting  the  Fed 
eral  right  flank.  In  the  afternoon  news 
came  of  advancing  re-enforcements  for 
McClellan,  who,  not  using  all  the  troops 
available,  had  fought  his  great  battle 
badly  enough ;  and  the  brave  Army  of 
Northern  Virginia  had  to  seek  the  region 
that  gave  them  their  name.  They  passed 
the  Potomac  in  perfect  order,  McClellan, 
who  with  more  enterprise  would  have 
attacked  them  on  the  18th,  doing  practi 
cally  nothing  to  stop  them.  By  October 
2  Lee  was  able  to  issue  an  address  to 
his  soldiers  from  his  headquarters  near 
Winchester,  reviewing  the  prowess  of 
their  arms  in  terms  as  deserved  as  they 
were  glowing.  Still  more  remarkable 
achievements  awaited  them ;  but,  politi 
cally,  the  campaign  just  ended  had  been 


84  EOBEET  E.  LEE 

a  failure.     Splendid  fighting  could  not 

save  the  isolated  and  depleted  South. 

A  young  British  soldier,  afterward 
famous  as  Lord  Wolseley,  who  visited 
Lee?s  headquarters  near  Winchester, 
which  were  pitched  in  a  rocky  place, 
because  Colonel  Long  was  vexed  that 
Lee  would  not  occupy  a  farm-yard, 
much  less  a  farm-house,  for  fear  of  dis 
turbing  the  occupants,  has  given  an  in 
teresting  description  of  the  simple  way 
the  great  commander  lived,  when  his 
troops  were  at  rest.  Simplicity  in  its 
best  sense  was  indeed  Lee's  distinguish 
ing  note.  Save  the  three  stars  on  his 
collar,  which  a  colonel  might  also  wear, 
he  wore  no  finery.  He  did  not  even 
carry  a  sword,  though  not  because  such 
weapons  were  not  presented  to  him  by 
admirers.  He  was  reserved  in  de 
meanor,  and  was  treated  with  great  def 
erence  by  his  officers  and  men,  who 
behind  his  back,  however,  gave  him  a 
name  that  stirs  the  survivors  to-day,  and 


EOBEET  E.   LEE  85 

sums  up  as  much  affection  and  admira 
tion  as  any  leader  has  ever  received, — 
the  homely  name  of  "Marse  Bobert." 
Yet  he  cracked  jokes  with  his  staff,  as, 
for  example,  about  his  favorite  beverage, 
buttermilk,  which  was  too  mild  for 
some  of  his  young  officers.  And  when 
ever,  as  rarely  happened,  he  lost  pa 
tience  with  any  of  them,  he  was  sure  to 
seize  a  speedy  opportunity  to  do  some 
little  courteous,  kindly  act  that  would 
make  its  recipient  glad  that  he  had  un 
wittingly  stirred  that  temper  so  seldom 
ruffled.  In  other  words,  Lee's  whole 
deportment  was  that  of  an  infinitely 
modest  gentleman,  General  Grant's  sub 
sequent  description  of  him  as  austere 
being  amusingly  wide  of  the  mark. 
Certainly,  austerity  is  about  the  last 
quality  to  be  found  in  the  private  let 
ters  Lee  was  writing  at  this  time,  in 
which  he  poured  out  his  heart  with  re 
gard  to  the  destitution  of  his  troops; 
nor  do  austere  commanders,  as  a  rule, 


86  EOBEET   E.  LEE 

trouble  themselves  to  write  about  and 
distribute  troopers'  socks  knit  by  their 
own  daughters  and  female  friends,  or  to 
devote  part  of  their  valuable  time  to 
obtaining  permission  from  their  govern 
ment  to  return  a  fallen  adversary's 
sword  and  horse  to  his  widow. 

Lee  occupied  his  rest  in  beseeching 
the  administration,  now  in  sore  financial 
straits,  for  supplies, — sometimes  he  had 
to  plead  for  soap, — and  in  recruiting 
and  disciplining  his  army.  He  was  also 
forming  plans  for  an  onward  movement, 
and  wishing  McClellan  would  do  some 
thing  that  would  employ  the  Confeder 
ate  troops,  who,  since  a  recent  revival 
of  religious  enthusiasm,  were  another 
"New  Model.77  Toward  the  last  of 
October  McClellan  moved,  wisely  choos 
ing  to  penetrate  between  Lee?s  army  and 
Eichmond,  which  that  army  had  to 
guard  at  all  hazards.  In  November  he 
was  superseded  by  Burnside,  whose 
movements  made  it  plain  that  he  could 


EOBEET  E.  LEE  87 

be  met  on  the  Bappahannock  at  Freder- 
icksburg,  though  Lee  would  have  pre 
ferred,  with  the  consent  of  the  Eich- 
mond  authorities,  to  do  his  fighting  on 
more  interior  lines,  in  the  hope,  in  case 
of  victory,  of  more  completely  cutting 
off  his  antagonist  from  his  base  of  sup 
plies.  Fredericksburg,  however,  was  de 
cided  upon,  and  Lee  moved  Longstreet 
from  Culpeper  —  where  Burnside  ought 
probably  to  have  sought  him  —  to  the 
Eappahannock,  to  dispute  the  Federal 
passage  of  that  river.  Jackson,  whose 
corps  had  been  for  some  time  in  the  Val 
ley,  was?  after  much  wavering  corre 
spondence,  brought  within  reach,  Lee 
again  proving  himself  to  be  right  in 
counting  on  his  adversary's  inaction 
for  a  period  in  which  a  greater  general 
might  have  accomplished  much.  Fi 
nally,  after  having  effected  the  crossing 
of  the  river  by  his  powerful  army,  Burn- 
side  began  on  December  13  one  of  the 
most  tremendous  battles  of  the  whole 


88  EOBEET  E.  LEE 

war,  by  ordering  an  attack  on  the  Con 
federate  right,  where  Jackson's  thickly 
massed  troops  stood  undefended.  The 
movement  resulted  in  complete  failure, 
though  several  times  renewed.  The  at 
tempt  on  the  left,  strongly  intrenched 
on  Marye's  Hill,  was  equally  disastrous, 
the  fighting  toward  evening  becoming 
terrific.  By  nightfall  the  Federals  had 
lost  over  twelve  thousand  men,  the  Con 
federates  less  than  five  thousand.  Burn- 
side  would  have  fought  again  the  next 
day ;  but  his  officers  dissuaded  him,  nor 
was  Lee  in  a  condition  to  take  the  offen 
sive.  The  Federals  recrossed  the  river, 
and  for  the  nonce  the  two  armies 
watched  one  another  amid  the  increas 
ing  discomforts  of  the  winter. 

The  battle  of  Fredericksburg  was  as 
picturesque  as  it  was  terrible ;  and,  as 
Lee  took  his  station  on  the  hill  since 
called  by  his  name,  his  heart  must  have 
been  filled  with  exultation  when  he 
heard  the  roar  of  the  batteries  and 


EOBEET  E.  LEE  89 

saw  the  gayly  advancing  columns  hurled 
back,  whether  by  Jackson's  or  by  Long- 
street's  veterans.  But  he  might  also  have 
felt  that  Fortune  was  kind  in  giving 
him  an  ineffective  opponent  like  Burn- 
side,  though  he  could  hardly  have 
guessed  that  he  was  soon  to  have  another 
taste  of  her  favors  in  the  choice  of  Gen 
eral  Joseph  Hooker  as  Burnside's  suc 
cessor.  His  family  letters  show,  how 
ever,  that  he  ascribed  his  success  to  God, 
not  to  Fortune. 

After  a  trying  winter,  varied  only  by 
cavalry  raids  and  pathetic  attempts  to 
secure  supplies,  Lee  sprang  into  life  and 
energy  when  he  found  that  Hooker,  with 
an  army  over  twice  as  large  as  his,  was 
preparing  to  cross  the  Eappahannock. 
The  Federal  commander  had  thought  to 
deceive  Lee  as  to  his  real  movements, 
but  the  latter  saw  through  his  schemes. 
Hooker's  plans  seem,  however,  to  have 
been  good ;  and  he  unquestionably  got 
Lee  into  a  dangerous  position,  when  the 


90  EOBEET  E.  LEE 

latter7  s  reduced  forces  are  taken  into 
account.  Some  writers  go  so  far  as  to 
deny  that  Lee  divined  Hooker's  move 
ments  5  but  it  is  at  least  clear  that,  after 
beginning  well,  the  Federal  commander 
lost  his  head  in  a  manner  to  be  ac 
counted  for  only  by  physiological  con 
siderations. 

Hooker  gained  at  Chancellorsville  — 
a  clearing  on  the  edge  of  the  great  thicket 
known  as  the  Wilderness — his  desired 
position  in  Lee's  rear,  and  thought  he 
had  that  general  at  his  mercy.  Lee, 
however,  was  never  more  alert ;  and  on 
the  night  of  May  1  he  suggested  to  Jack 
son  a  circuitous  march  that  enabled  that 
superb  corps  commander  to  fall  upon 
Hooker's  rear  unexpectedly,  and  inflict 
one  of  the  most  crushing  defeats  known 
to  history.  It  was  purchased,  however, 
as  the  world  knows,  by  the  loss  of  the 
life  that  after  Lee's  the  South  could  least 
spare.  Stonewall,  while  reconnoitring 
for  another  attack,  was  shot  in  the  dark 


EOBEET  E.  LEE  91 

by  his  own  men.  When  he  heard  of 
Jackson's  wound,  Lee  sent  him  word 
that  the  great  victory  of  May  2  be 
longed  not  to  himself,  but  to  the  man 
who  had  surprised  the  enemy  so  com 
pletely  and  disastrously.  This  was  mag 
nanimous,  and  therefore  like  Lee  5  but  it 
is  not  fair.  He  himself  was  in  the  thick 
of  the  fighting  of  the  3d ;  and  the  sol 
diers  who  stopped  for  a  moment,  in  their 
uncontrollable  desire  to  cheer  him  as  he 
rode  to  the  front,  showed  that  they  knew 
well  enough  who  the  real  head  of  the 
Army  of  Northern  Virginia  was,  and 
who  was  entitled  to  the  crowning  glory 
of  its  every  victory.  Jackson  was  great, 
and  his  loss  ever  after  hampered  his 
superior;  but  General  Fitzhugh  Lee  is 
clearly  right  in  claiming  Chancellors- 
ville  as  his  uncle's  victory,  and,  perhaps, 
his  most  wonderful  battle.  Lee  also 
practically  claimed  it  for  himself  in  a 
letter  to  Dr.  A.  T.  Bledsoe, — as  fine  a 
letter  as  one  could  wish  to  read. 


92  EOBEET  E.  LEE 

The  fighting  that  followed  May  3d 
need  not  be  described.  The  6th  revealed 
to  Lee  the  fact  that  Hooker  had  used  the 
stormy  night  to  retreat  beyond  the  Eap- 
pahannock.  The  losses  on  both  sides 
during  the  successive  fights  had  been 
very  heavy  and  proportionally  even; 
but  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  losses  were 
bound  to  tell  more  disastrously  upon  him 
than  upon  his  opponent,  and  in  spite  of 
his  constant  lack  of  supplies,  Lee,  actu 
ated  by  his  standing  desire  to  destroy 
the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  determined 
to  draw  Hooker  from  his  position  by 
once  more  invading  the  North.  The 
rightful  confidence  of  a  born  soldier  in 
his  own  powers  and  in  those  of  his  tried 
veterans,  and  the  political  necessity  for 
striking  rapid  and  disheartening  blows, 
may  perhaps  justify  plans  which  few 
commanders  would  have  dreamed  of, 
much  less  dared  to  follow  5  but  the  wis 
dom  of  the  Gettysburg  campaign,  even 
if  victory  had  fallen  to  the  Confederates 


EOBEET  E.   LEE  93 

in  the  great  battles  of  July,  will  always 
furnish  historians  with  matter  for  dis 
cussion.  It  must  be  remembered,  how 
ever,  that  Lee's  proposal  to  have  Beau- 
regard  brought  up  to  Virginia  to  threaten 
Washington  was  an  integral  part  of  his 
scheme,  and  that  it  was  beyond  his 
power  to  force  the  Confederate  authori 
ties  to  accede  to  his  wishes. 

The  bold  and  well-executed  move 
ments  by  which  Lee  gathered  his  forces 
for  the  passage  of  the  Potomac,  and  drew 
Hooker  northward,  must  be  passed  over, 
although  it  should  be  noted  that  through 
a  reorganization  the  Army  of  Northern 
Virginia,  with  its  three  corps  under 
A.  P.  Hill,  Longstreet,  and  Ewell,  was 
equal  to  three  armies  of  about  twenty- 
five  thousand  each.  By  June  26  Cham- 
bersburg  was  reached  ;  and  the  next  day 
General  Order  No.  73  was  issued,  which 
closed  with  an  injunction  against  unnec 
essary  destruction  of  private  property. 
But  now  want  of  information  with  re- 


94  EGBERT  E.  LEE 

gard  to  Hooker's  movements  began  to 
be  felt ;  for  Stuart,  through  a  great 
blunder,  had  allowed  the  Federal  army 
to  cut  him  off  from  his  own  commander. 
Lee's  orders  are  said  to  have  been  in 
definite  ;  but,  after  all,  one  does  not  pre 
sumably  need  to  counsel  able  lieutenants 
not  to  commit  felo  de  se. 

On  June  28  Lee  learned  that  he  was 
to  have  a  far  better  soldier  than  Hooker 
against  him, — General  George  Gordon 
Meade.  No  dismay  was  felt  at  the 
news,  but  Meade' s  swift  marching  ren 
dered  a  rapid  concentration  of  the  Con 
federate  forces  necessary.  By  July  1 
both  armies  were  near  Gettysburg,  and 
some  fighting  advantageous  to  the  Con 
federates  had  been  done,  Lee  in  the 
mean  while  having  been  kept  anxious 
by  Stuart's  absence.  In  fact,  the  great 
pivotal  battle  now  to  be  fought  was  pre 
cipitated  through  Lee's  lack  of  requisite 
information.  Had  he  been  at  liberty 
to  choose  his  time  and  place,  the  result 


EOBEET  E.  LEE  95 

might  have  been  different.  As  it  was, 
the  Federals  had  taken  a  strong  position 
on  Cemetery  Eidge ;  and  Lee  would  have 
to  do  the  dislodging,  though,  as  a  mat 
ter  of  fact,  Meade,  too,  would  have  liked 
to  choose  a  different  field  of  operations. 
On  the  morning  of  July  2  dislodgment 
was  attempted ;  but  Longstreet,  a  slow 
mover,  failed  to  come  up  in  time,  al 
though  he  had  only  four  miles  to  trav 
erse.  This  unforeseen  delay  enabled 
the  Federals  to  intrench  themselves  still 
more  strongly,  and  by  the  close  of  the 
day  their  various  corps  had  reached 
the  scene  of  action  without  having  been 
attacked  in  detail.  The  blame  for  the 
Confederate  remissness  seems  to  attach 
to  Longstreet,  who  was  plainly  out  of 
sympathy  with  Lee's  plans.  Whether 
the  latter  ought  to  have  removed  his 
lieutenant  is  one  of  those  questions  no 
one  can  settle,  yet  it  is  at  least  clear 
that  the  ever- consider  ate  Lee  was  not 
the  man  to  take  such  a  step. 


96  EOBEET  E.  LEE 

But  at  last  in  the  afternoon  a  fierce 
attack  was  delivered.  Both  sides  made 
a  dash  for  a  hill,  Little  Bound  Top, 
which  through  a  gross  error  on  General 
Sickles' s  part  had  been  left  unoccupied; 
but  the  Federals  reached  the  summit 
first,  and  Hood's  brave  Texans  could 
not  dislodge  them.  Meanwhile  Sickles' s 
corps  at  the  weakest  point  of  the  Fed 
eral  line  was  forced  backward  by  a  ter 
rible  assault  from  Longstreet's  men,  and 
by  seven  o'clock  Meade's  left  wing  had 
been  badly  crippled.  But  the  Confeder 
ates  did  not  follow  up  their  success,  and 
night  fell  leaving  Lee  still  sanguine  of 
an  eventual  victory.  If  Longstreet  had 
let  his  superb  troops  get  into  action 
earlier,  and  if  Hill  and  Ewell  had  sup 
ported  him  properly  when  he  did  begin, 
the  much  debated  story  of  Meade's  in 
tention  to  retreat  would  never  have 
occupied  subsequent  writers.  In  other 
words,  if  Lee  had  had  three  Jacksons, 
he  might  practically  have  won  Gettys- 


BOBBET  E.  LEE  97 

burg  on  the  second  day ;  but  he  must 
not  be  blamed  for  his  choice  of  corps 
commanders,  for  they  were  probably  as 
good  as  any  he  could  have  secured,  all 
charges  of  favoritism  in  their  appoint 
ments  to  the  contrary  notwithstanding. 
That  such  charges  should  ever  have 
been  made  against  a  man  like  General 
Lee  is  a  crowning  proof  of  the  fact 
that  military  controversies  almost  neu 
tralize  the  glory  of  honorable  warfare. 

On  the  morning  of  the  3d,  Longstreet 
was  again  tardy  in  supporting  Ewell, 
and  the  Confederates  suffered  severely 
in  consequence.  In  the  afternoon  there 
was  a  great  artillery  duel ;  and,  when 
this  slacked,  Pickett,  as  Lee  had  ordered, 
began  to  move  his  chosen  troops  forward. 
When  they  had  traversed  half  of  the 
fourteen  hundred  yards  between  them 
and  Cemetery  Eidge,  the  Federal  guns 
again  opened  fire  $  but  the  Confederates 
had  nearly  exhausted  their  ammunition 
without  Lee's  knowledge,  and  their  guns 


98  EOBEET  E.  LEE 

did  not  support  the  advancing  columns 
as  he  had  intended.  Fifteen  howitzers 
did  indeed  move  after  them,  but  the 
ammunition  chests  on  the  caissons  were 
not  filled  ! 

Of  the  "wild  charge ??  now  made, 
there  is  little  need  to  speak;  for  the 
world  has  never  been  able  to  forget  it. 
Such  of  Pickettf  s  men  as  the  terrific 
Federal  fire  left  on  their  feet  gained 
the  crest  and  the  breastworks,  but  their 
success  was  only  for  a  moment.  Heth's 
division  had  not  been  able  to  face  the 
fire,  and  the  other  supports  planned  did 
not  become  effectual.  So  the  great 
charge  has  gone  down  to  history  as 
merely  a  charge,  whereas  there  are 
reasons  for  believing  that,  if  Lee's  orders 
had  been  followed,  Meade's  compara 
tively  weak  centre  would  have  been 
forced  with  permanent  results.  Pickett'  s 
first  report  would  have  brought  this  out, 
had  not  Lee,  with  his  usual  magnanim 
ity,  urged  him  to  destroy  it  and  write 


BOBEET '  k  lEEl  99 

another.  The  great  soldier,  but  greater 
man,  preferred  to  take  upon  himself  the 
total  responsibility  for  the  failure  of 
his  brilliant  plans.  Thus  the  greatest 
defeat  of  his  life  is  the  chief  glory  of  his 
noble  character. 

Meade's  army  was  seemingly  too  much 
shattered  for  him  to  venture  the  next 
day  upon  the  offensive,  although  Lee 
stood  ready  for  him.  Under  these  cir 
cumstances,  and  while  he  still  had  about 
fifty  thousand  eager  men,  the  Confederate 
leader,  knowing  that  his  ammunition  was 
short,  and  fearing  that  his  communica 
tions  might  be  cut  off,  began  to  retreat. 
He  moved  calmly,  and  reached  the  Po 
tomac  without  serious  molestation,  but 
found  it  swollen  and  unpassable.  Meade 
followed,  but  intrenched  himself,  and 
did  not  venture  an  attack.  The  Potomac 
having  subsided,  Lee  got  his  army  across 
with  masterly  skill  5  and  the  great  cam 
paign  of  invasion,  which  represented 
more  of  a  political  than  a  physical  de 
feat,  was  concluded. 


100  BOKEBT  'E.  LEE 

The  Federal  commander  crossed  over 
into  Virginia  shortly  after,  but  no  events 
of  importance  took  place  in  that  State 
during  the  remainder  of  the  year.  Else 
where  the  Confederacy  suffered  great 
losses.  Yicksburg  fell  before  Grant's 
sturdy  blows,  and  Federal  control  of 
the  Mississippi  was  thus  established. 
Things  went  badly  for  the  South  in  Ten 
nessee  also,  and  Charleston  was  closely 
pressed,  both  commanders  in  Virginia 
furnishing  troops  for  the  respective  oper 
ations.  In  September,  1863,  it  was  pro 
posed  to  send  Lee  to  Tennessee  ;  but  the 
effects  of  his  absence  from  Virginia  were 
too  much  feared  to  permit  the  experi 
ment.  Lee  himself,  feeling  that  a  crisis 
was  at  hand,  and,  perhaps,  weary  of 
bearing  criticism,  suggested  early  in 
August  that  Mr.  Davis  should  relieve 
him  by  a  younger  man  5  but  the  Con 
federate  President  properly  replied, 
"To  ask  me  to  substitute  you  by  some 
one,  in  my  judgment,  more  fit  to  com- 


KOBEET  E:   LEE  101 

mand,  or  who  would  possess  more  of  the 
confidence  of  the  army  or  of  the  reflect 
ing  men  of  the  country,  is  to  demand  an 
impossibility.77 

So  Lee  remained  in  charge,  and  raised 
his  army  to  nearly  fifty-nine  thousand, 
which  he  depleted  by  thirteen  thousand 
the  next  month  by  detaching  Longstreet 
for  Tennessee  and  Pickett  for  Peters 
burg.  With  his  reduced  force  he  stood 
against  Meade  on  the  Bapidan,  and 
early  in  October  crossed  over  to  seek 
battle.  Finding  his  rear  threatened,  the 
Federal  general  retreated  beyond  the 
Bappahannock.  Lee  followed,  and  vari 
ous  manoeuvres  ensued,  Meade  at  one 
time  marching  South  to  get  at  Lee,  while 
the  latter  was  moving  in  the  opposite 
direction  to  get  at  Meade.  Once  or 
twice  the  Confederates  got  into  nasty 
situations ;  but  when,  finally,  the  two 
armies  late  in  November  found  them 
selves  opposed  on  the  little  stream 
known  as  Mine  Bun,  it  became  ap- 


102  EOBE&T  E.  LEE 

parent  to  Meade  who  had  expected  an 
easy  victory,  but  had  been  subjected  to 
his  rival7  s  fate  of  having  a  subordinate 
fail  him,  that  Lee  had  intrenched  him 
self  too  strongly  to  be  worth  disturb 
ing.  He  accordingly  withdrew  to  Cul- 
peper,  arid  the  campaign  was  over,  both 
generals  having  shown  much  ability, 
Meade,  however,  as  was  natural,  gaining 
more  prestige  than  Lee,  from  whom  men 
now  expected  masterly  achievements  in 
every  situation. 


YI. 

NEVER  had  Lee's  troops  suffered 
greater  privations  than  they  did  during 
the  winter  of  1863-64  in  their  defences 
behind  the  Eapidan.  They  kept  their 
guns  pointing  steadily  toward  the  Fed 
erals  at  Culpeper  Court-house,  and  they 
kept  their  spirits  up  within  their  own 
camp ;  but  they  had  a  hard  time  keep 
ing  hunger  down.  Even  their  com 
mander,  whose  small  tent  was  pitched 
on  a  hillside  in  their  midst,  allowed 
himself  meat  only  twice  a  week,  and 
sent  every  delicacy  that  came  to  him  to 
the  hospitals.  But  he  maintained  his 
dignity,  his  courage,  and  his  faith  in 
God  5  and  he  presents  almost,  if  not  quite, 
as  sublime  a  picture  as  Washington  at 
Valley  Forge.  His  fellow- citizens,  al 
though  they,  too,  were  in  the  depths  of 
privation,  felt  such  admiration  for  him 
that  it  was  a  pain  to  them  not  to  be  able 
to  show  it  in  a  concrete  form.  But  he 


104  EOBEET  E.  LEE 

would  take  nothing  ;  and  his  letter  to  the 
City  Council  of  Eichmond,  who  had  en 
deavored  to  make  him  accept  a  house 
for  his  family,  throws  a  splendid  light  on 
his  character.  And,  as  if  to  try  him 
more  severely,  sore  family  afflictions 
beset  him. 

"With  the  spring,  however,  came  the 
stir  and  strain  of  action  he  was  always 
craving.  Grant,  the  hero  of  the  West 
and  commander-in-chief  of  all  the  Union 
forces,  had  taken  actual  charge  of  the 
Army  of  the  Potomac,  which  was  nomi 
nally  under  General  Meade,  and  meant 
to  fight  the  war  out  to  an  end.  Grant 
was  a  great  general ;  but  he  was  to  find 
a  still  greater  antagonist,  even  if  a  mor 
tal  one,  as  he  encouraged  himself  by 
thinking.  Being  mortal,  Lee  could  be 
"  hammered ??  out ;  and,  as  that  was  the 
only  way  to  subdue  him  and  end  the 
war,  Grant  was,  politically  at  least, 
justified  in  taking  it,  although  it  may 
be  contended  that  he  really  gained  his 


EGBERT  E.   LEE  105 

point  by  pressing  Lee  flat  by  means  of  a 
siege.  His  success  does  not,  however, 
entitle  him  to  wear  Lee's  laurels  ;  for  it 
is  as  clear  as  anything  can  be  that  in 
the  campaigns  briefly  to  be  described 
the  general  who  was  finally  defeated 
was  a  greater  master  of  the  art  of  war 
than  his  opponent,  that,  if  he  had  had 
Grant's  task  to  perform,  even  against  a 
general  as  great  as  himself,  he  would 
have  done  it  more  expeditiously  and 
with  less  loss  of  life  than  Grant  did. 
Such,  at  least,  will  always  be  the  belief 
of  many  of  us,  in  spite  of  our  genuine 
admiration  for  Grant,  both  as  a  general 
and  as  a  man. 

The  Army  of  the  Potomac  at  the 
opening  of  the  campaign  numbered 
nearly  one  hundred  and  twenty  thou 
sand,  and  was  admirably  equipped. 
Lee  had  less  than  sixty-two  thousand 
ragged  veterans.  He  was  fighting  on 
the  defensive,  however,  in  a  country 
most  difficult  for  an  attacking  enemy  5 


106  EOBEET  E.  LEE 

and  these  facts  must  be  allowed  to  neu 
tralize  much  of  Grant's  numerical  su 
periority.  Yet  we  should  not  forget 
that  the  masterly  man  is  the  one  who 
knows  how  to  use  his  opportunities  to 
the  best  advantage ;  and  this,  judging 
by  the  delays  and  losses  he  caused  Grant, 
Lee  appears  to  have  done.  Grant  did 
not  do  it,  seemingly,  when  on  May  4, 
1864,  he  set  his  army  in  motion  across 
the  Eapidan,  and  halted  in  the  tangled 
thickets  of  the  Wilderness;  for  he  there 
gave  Lee  the  field  of  operations  that  best 
suited  him.  On  the  afternoon  of  the 
5th  the  Federal  right  and  the  Confeder 
ate  left  came  upon  one  another  in  the 
brush  ;  and  the  latter,  being  in  position, 
sent  the  former  reeling  back  with  loss. 
On  the  right  Hancock  failed  to  drive 
A.  P.  Hill  from  his  position.  Early  on 
the  morning  of  the  6th  Hill  was  again 
assailed,  and  was  saved  only  by  the 
happy  but  tardy  arrival  of  Longstreet. 
It  was  in  this  fight  that  Gregg's  Texas 


EOBEET  E.  LEE  107 

Brigade,  recognizing  Lee  riding  along 
with  them  to  their  charge,  cried  out  to 
a  man:  "Go  back,  General  Lee!  Go 
back!"  He  had  just  before,  carried 
away  by  the  battle-fever,  shouted  out 
to  them,  "My  Texas  boys,  you  must 
charge."  That  was  how  they  answered 
him  as  they  ran.  Lee  still  pressing  on, 
the  shout  of  protestation  was  redoubled  5 
and  a  sergeant  nerved  himself  to  seize 
his  bridle-rein.  Then,  disappointed  but 
assuredly  proud  at  heart,  the  great 
leader  dropped  behind. 

The  Confederate  success  secured  by 
Longstreet's  advance  against  Hancock 
was  much  checked  by  the  formers 
wounding  at  the  hands  of  his  own  men, 
which  forced  Lee  to  take  charge  in  per 
son.  Hancock's  troops  were  now  in 
trenched  behind  logs,  however ;  and, 
although  the  Confederates  carried  a  por 
tion  of  his  defences,  they  were  finally 
driven  out,  and  the  battle  was  practi 
cally  over.  The  losses  had  been  heavy 


108  EOBEET  E.  LEE 

on  both  sides ;  but  Grant's  determina 
tion  to  withdraw  to  Spottsylvania  Court 
house  showed  that  the  advantage  rested 
with  Lee,  if  indeed  any  advantage  could 
come  out  of  such  an  Inferno,  in  which 
men  of  the  same  blood  fought  hand  to 
hand  in  the  tangled  brush  like  wild 
beasts  contending  for  a  lair. 

The  Federals,  in  their  advance  upon 
Spottsylvania  Court-house,  naturally 
thought  that  they  had  left  Lee  fifteen 
miles  to  the  rear ;  but  he  had  again 
guessed  and  forestalled  his  adversary's 
plans,  and  had  sent  General  E.  H.  An 
derson  with  Longstreet's  corps  by  a  cir 
cuitous  route  to  plant  himself  across 
Grant's  line  of  march  toward  Eichmond. 
General  Long  is  not  far  out  of  the  way 
when  he  describes  these  movements  as 
Napoleonic.  Nor  need  Napoleon  have 
been  ashamed  of  the  hard  fighting  done 
on  either  side  for  the  next  five  days 
(May  8-12),  during  which  Grant  was 
extricating  himself  from  the  difficult 


EOBEET  E.  LEE  109 

country  in  order  to  effect  a  junction 
with  Butler  on  the  James.  Manoeuvr 
ing  being  impracticable.  Grant  simply 
had  to  fight  his  way  out  5  but  his  attacks 
on  the  intrenched  Confederates,  although 
delivered  with  heroic  energy  and  deter 
mination,  were  usually  repulsed  with 
great  loss.  On  the  12th,  however,  a 
breach  was  made  in  the  Southern  lines 
at  the  famous  Salient.  This  led  to  tre 
mendous  efforts  on  Lee's  part  to  check 
the  advance  of  the  Federal  masses.  The 
carnage  was  tremendous,  but  the  Feder 
als  were  at  last  forced  to  desist  from 
their  efforts.  Lee,  as  at  the  Wilderness 
and  as  at  Spottsylvania  on  the  10th,  tried 
to  charge  at  a  desperate  moment  during 
this  contest  of  the  12th ;  but  he  was 
again  forced  to  retire  by  his  troops. 

From  May  13  to  18  Grant  tried  no 
more  fighting,  and  sent  for  re- enforce 
ments,  while  the  Confederates  were  glad 
to  rest.  On  the  18th  and  19th  he  again 
attacked  Lee's  line,  looking  for  weak 


110  EGBERT  E.  LEE 

places,  but  failed  to  find  them.  On  the 
20th,  having  received  large  re-enforce 
ments,  he  followed  his  former  plan  of 
a  flank  march ;  but  Lee  was  again  too 
quick  for  him,  and  reached  Hanover 
Junction  a  day  before  him.  Here  Grant 
had  to  cross  the  North  Anna  River; 
and,  when  this  had  been  done  with  loss, 
he  found  that  Lee  had  wedged  his  centre, 
which  rested  on  the  river,  between  the 
two  Federal  wings.  Such  a  position 
promised  nothing  even  for  a  hammerer ; 
and  he  hastened  on  to  the  Parnunkey, 
Lee  again  using  his  advantage  of  operat 
ing  on  interior  lines  to  arrest  any  ad 
vance  on  Richmond,  by  taking  up  a 
position  on  the  Totopotomoy.  Again 
Grant  shrank  from  a  general  attack,  and 
moved  on ;  and  again  Lee  kept  pace  with 
him.  There  was  skirmishing  of  course, 
and  heavy  fighting  at  Bethesda  Church, 
and  finally,  on  June  1  and  2,  very  severe 
fighting  and  skirmishing  took  place  on 
the  old  battle-ground  of  Cold  Harbor, 


EOBEET  E.  LEE  111 

near  the  Chickahominy.  A  desperate 
assault  on  the  Confederate  works  was 
made  on  June  3,  and  Grant,  according 
to  the  most  reliable  figures,  lost  about 
ten  thousand  men  to  his  opponent's 
two  thousand.  Undismayed,  the  Union 
leader  would  have  renewed  the  attack 
the  next  day  ;  but  even  as  bold  a  fighter 
as  Hancock  used  his  discretion,  and  rested 
his  men.  The  hammering  was  too  much 
for  the  subordinate  generals,  when  they 
had  to  deliver  blows  with  such  rapid 
ity.  They  preferred  the  slower  strokes 
of  a  siege,  and  Grant  finally  showed 
by  his  change  of  plans  that  he  agreed 
with  them.  It  was  high  time  $  but  reg 
ular  approaches  could  not  keep  Lee  from 
sending  troops  against  Hunter  in  the 
Valley,  and  on  June  12  Grant  moved 
toward  the  James.  He  was  now  com 
pelled  to  join  Butler's  already  harassed 
force,  and  to  reach  Bichrnond  by  first 
taking  Petersburg.  In  other  words,  he 
had  made  miscalculations  that  had  dam- 


112  EOBEET  E.  LEE 

pened  the  spirits  of  his  splendid  army, 
had  lost  nearly  fifty-five  thousand  men 
between  the  Eapidan  and  the  James,  and 
had  been  outgeneralled  by  Lee  at  almost 
every  turn.  It  is  true  that  one  would 
not  gather  this  from  his  "  Memoirs. " 
Yet  he  was  nearer  his  goal,  although 
the  Confederates,  flushed  with  victory, 
hardly  perceived  it.  Twenty  thousand 
men  could  not  be  lost  with  impunity  by 
the  cooped-up  South  5  and  the  survivors 
who  fought  under  Lee  were  mortal,  like 
their  commander,  and  would  not  know 
how  to  conquer  that  fell  foe,  hunger. 
Lee  was  in  reality  playing  a  masterly 
game  of  chess  with  an  inferior  adver 
sary,  who,  however,  had  the  privilege 
of  replacing  his  pieces  as  fast  as  they 
were  taken. 

By  the  evening  of  June  18,  Lee  had 
joined  his  forces  with  those  of  Beaure- 
gard  for  the  defence  of  Petersburg,  and 
the  last  stage  of  the  war  had  begun,  the 
Federals  having  meanwhile  lost  upward 


EOBEET  E.  LEE  113 

of  ten  thousand  men  through,  attacks 
upon  the  troops  behind  Beauregard's 
trenches.  It  seemed  as  if  Grant  had  for 
gotten  his  lesson;  but  he  had  not,  and 
was  soon  intrenching  himself  for  the 
siege  of  Petersburg.  Lee  from  this  time 
felt  that  the  struggle  was  hopeless,  so  far 
as  Eichmond  was  concerned;  yet  the 
Confederate  authorities  persisted  in  be 
lieving  that  the  South' s  fortunes  stood 
or  fell  with  her  capital.  Lee  had  not 
been  strenuous  enough  to  make  himself 
a  dominating  power,  like  Cromwell  or 
Washington.  So  there  was  nothing  for 
him  to  do  but  fight  it  out  to  the  bitter 
end,  and  lose  his  gallant  army  and  his 
well-served  cause,  but  not  his  enduring 
fame  and  honor.  It  is  idle  to  wish  that 
he  had  taken  matters  in  his  own  hands, 
and  retreated  to  the  Yalley.  That 
would  not  have  been  in  consonance  with 
that  exquisiteness  of  character  that  gives 
him  his  chief  charm,  and  it  would  only 
have  protracted  a  doomed  struggle. 


114  EGBERT  E.  LEE 

For,  although  in  this  summer  of  1864 
the  Forth  seemed  to  waver  in  its  Her 
culean  task,  there  is  little  reason  to  be 
lieve  that  any  success  Lee  might  have 
had  by  luring  Grant  into  the  mountains 
would  have  brought  peace  and  Con 
federate  independence. 

There  is  no  need  to  describe  the  siege 
of  Petersburg,  which  lasted  from  June, 
1864,  to  the  end  of  March,  1865,  or  to 
recount  the  contemporary  movements 
farther  South  by  which  Sherman  slowly 
crushed  out  all  chance  of  succor  for  Lee 
and  his  veterans.  Grant's  strong  works 
protected  him,  and  his  ample  supplies 
rendered  his  ultimate  victory  certain. 
Yet  his  efforts  against  the  Weldon  Rail 
road  in  the  summer  and  autumn  cost 
him  dearly,  as  did  also  his  famous  at 
tempt  late  in  July  to  blow  up  the  Con 
federate  works  in  front  of  Petersburg. 
The  ensuing  battle  of  the  Crater  proved 
that  Lee's  veterans  were  still  invincible, 
and  that  the  Federals  still  had  subordi- 


EOBEET  E.  LEE  115 

nate  generals,  who  had  learned  nothing 
by  experience.  But  the  bravery  of  the 
Confederate  private  soldier  and  the  gen 
ius  of  their  commander,  and  the  spirit 
and  dash  of  subordinates  like  Early,  were 
all  unavailing.  Nor  was  it  now  worth 
while  to  give  Lee  the  empty  honor  of  the 
commandership-in- chief  of  the  Confeder 
ate  armies  (February,  1865), — a  position 
which  should  have  been  his  long  before. 
That  he  would  have  filled  it  admirably 
is  clear  from  the  suggestions  as  to  opera 
tions  far  afield  that  he  had  been  continu 
ally  making  in  his  letters.  Probably 
the  final  result  would  not  have  been  dif 
ferent,  but  posterity  would  have  had  the 
satisfaction  of  knowing  that  the  right 
man  was  in  the  right  place. 

Yet  was  not  this  true,  after  all?  Was 
not  the  right  man  in  his  place  —  amid 
those  wintry,  shelterless  trenches  around 
Petersburg  —  as  commander  of  those 
ragged,  frozen,  starved,  but  unconquered 
troops  who  held  their  thirty-five  or  forty 


116  EOBEET  E.  LEE 

miles  of  defences  with  a  thousand  men  to 
the  mile?  What  other  American  save 
Washington  would  have  been  the  right 
man  there  f  And  how  can  any  man  or 
woman,  who  loves  courage  and  genius; 
and  unselfishness  and  gentleness  and  im 
plicit  trust  in  God,  not  love  Lee,  what 
ever  may  be  thought  of  the  losing  cause 
he  served  ?  Who  among  us  does  not  envy 
the  opportunity  of  that  Bichrnond  lady 
to  show  her  love,  who  made  him  drink 
the  last  cup  of  tea  she  had,  and  com 
placently  sipped  the  muddy  water  of 
James  River,  that  he  might  not  detect 
her  sacrifice  and  refuse  to  accept  her 
homage  $ 

But  we  must  hasten  to  the  closing 
scene  of  the  great  drama.  Late  in 
March,  1865,  Lee  planned  a  desperate 
attack  upon  Grant's  right;  but,  as  so 
often  before,  his  subordinates  failed  him. 
Then  Grant  tried  the  Confederate  right ; 
and  Lee,  guessing  his  intention,  took  the 
initiative  in  order  to  frustrate  him,  but, 


EOBEET  E.  LEE  117 

finding  the  Federals  too  strongly  massed, 
had  to  retire  to  his  works.  On  April  2 
the  Federals  broke  the  weak  Confederate 
lines  5  and,  Lee's  position  becoming  un 
tenable,  he  resolved,  if  possible,  to  lead 
his  thirty  thousand  men  to  some  defensi 
ble  point  in  the  interior.  Notice  was 
given  to  Eichmond,  and  that  city  sur 
rendered  on  the  3d.  Lee  pressed  on  to 
Amelia  Court-house,  where  he  had  or 
dered  supplies  to  be  in  waiting.  In  some 
unexplained  way  his  directions  failed  to 
take  effect ;  and  the  provision  train 
passed  through  Amelia,  and  was  un 
loaded  in  Eichmond.  It  was  a  bitter 
disappointment.  Grant  was  fast  ap 
proaching  with  a  large  part  of  his  forces, 
and  yet  the  Confederates  had  no  food  to 
support  them  either  for  a  last  fight  or  for 
a  swift  retreat.  Nevertheless,  it  is  hard 
to  say  which  bore  the  disappointment 
more  bravely,  the  commander  or  his 
troops.  Finally,  on  April  7,  Grant  sent 
a  most  courteous  note,  asking  for  a  sur- 


118  EOBEET  E.  LEE 

render.  Lee  still  hoped  to  secure  sup 
plies  at  Appomattox  Court-house,  and 
replied  that  he  did  not  consider  his  cause 
hopeless,  but  that  in  order  to  save  a 
useless  waste  of  blood  he  should  like  to 
know  Grant's  terms.  Further  corre 
spondence  followed,  and  on  the  evening 
of  the  8th  Lee  learned  that  his  hoped- 
for  stores  had  been  captured.  He  then 
took  his  last  chance  of  war,  and  ordered 
his  remnant,  only  ten  thousand  strong, 
to  break  through  the  enemy  in  front, 
unless  the  latter' s  infantry  were  found 
too  heavily  massed.  On  the  morning 
of  the  9th  the  devoted  forces  moved 
forward ;  but,  after  a  little  fighting, 
Gordon  reported  the  dreaded  presence 
of  preponderant  infantry  barring  his 
advance,  and  demanded  re-enforcements, 
doubtless  intending  no  irony.  Lee  had 
nothing  left  to  do  but  to  send  a  flag 
of  truce  to  Grant,  with  the  declara 
tion  to  those  about  him  that  he  would 
rather  die  a  thousand  deaths  than  go 


EOBEET  E.  LEE  119 

through  the  necessary  interview.  But 
he  had  resolved  that  it  was  his  duty  to 
surrender,  and  duty  was  always  para 
mount  with  him. 

The  meeting  with  Grant  took  place  a 
little  before  noon  on  the  same  morning 
(April  9,  1865)  at  a  private  residence 
in  the  village  of  Appomattox  Court 
house.  Nothing  could  have  exceeded 
Grant's  courtesy.  Indeed,  he  rose  to  the 
full  stature  of  a  hero  ;  and  the  scene  of 
the  greatest  surrender  in  American  his 
tory  ought  to  be  remembered  with  pride 
by  every  citizen  of  our  now  united 
country,  for  it  illustrates,  as  perhaps 
no  similar  event  has  ever  done,  the  es 
sential  nobility  of  human  nature. 

The  rest  is  soon  told.  Grant  gener 
ously  allowed  the  Confederate  privates 
to  keep  their  horses  for  their  spring 
ploughing  5  and  Lee  rode  away  to  be 
surrounded  by  his  ragged  veterans,  who 
still  refused  to  believe  he  would  sur 
render,  and  who  sobbed  in  anguish  when 


120  EOBEET  E.  LEE 

he  told  them  that  the  struggle  was  over. 
The  tears  stood  in  his  eyes ;  and  they 
stand  in  the  eyes  of  those  who  love  him, 
as  to-day  they  read  over  or  recall  the 
pathetic  scene.  On  the  following  day 
he  issued  to  the  survivors  of  the  Army  of 
Northern  Virginia  as  dignified  an  ad 
dress  as  any  commander,  victorious  or 
defeated,  has  ever  written.  After  re 
ceiving  visits  from  old  friends  like  Gen 
eral  Meade, — pathetic  visits,  which  yet 
show  how  much  human  nature,  with  its 
godlike  capacities,  ought  to  be  above  the 
brutal  necessity  of  settling  disputes  by 
war, — he  mounted  Traveller,  and  rode 
slowly  toward  Eichmond.  Halting  at 
the  house  of  his  brother,  Charles  Carter, 
in  Powhatan  County,  he  insisted,  in 
spite  of  the  rain,  on  spending  a  last 
night  in  his  old  tent.  What  poet  will 
tell  us  of  his  thoughts?  Arrived  in 
Eichmond,  he  was  greeted  with  wild  en 
thusiasm,  in  which  Northern  troops  who 
had  fought  against  him  joined  heartily. 


EGBERT  E.  LEE  121 

Finally,  he  escaped  from  demonstrations 
trying  to  him,  but  inspiring  to  every 
lover  of  his  kind,  by  entering  the  modest 
house  where  his  family  was  waiting  to 
receive  him.  He  had  left  that  family 
four  years  before,  the  hope  of  his  native 
State.  He  returned  to  it  the  chosen 
hero  of  the  Southern  people.  He  will 
remain  the  hero  of  that  people  and  of 
thousands  of  men  and  women  throughout 
the  world  who  love  valor  and  virtue  in 
supreme  combination.  Those  who  place 
strenuous  power  in  its  rightful  position 
of  supremacy  among  human  capacities, 
when  it  is  joined  with  spotless  virtue, 
will  put  Washington,  but  Washington 
only  of  all  Americans,  above  him  in  the 
rolls  of  fame.  But  Lee  would  have  been 
prompt  to  assert  Washington's  unique 
grandeur;  while  Washington,  could  he 
speak  to  us,  would  assert  Lee's  unique 
charm.  To  the  historian  the  one  man 
will  be  the  greater,  to  the  dramatist  the 
other  5  nor  will  the  poet  ever  cease  to 


122  EGBERT  E.  LEE 

affirm  that  on  the  field  of  Appomattox 
the  mighty  battle-axe  struck  down  the 
keen  Damascus  blade. 


VII. 

LEE  remained  in  Bichmond  until 
June,  when  he  retired  with  his  family 
to  a  quiet  country  place.  In  the  city 
he  had  been  subject  to  all  sorts  of  inter 
ruptions,  for  friend  and  foe  wished  to 
see  and  hear  him.  While  he  was  too 
great  a  man  to  feel  bitterness  and 
too  dignified  to  be  placed  in  much 
embarrassment,  it  was  only  natural  that 
he  should  long  for  retirement,  although 
such  devotion  as  that  shown  by  the 
ragged  troopers,  who  wished  to  spirit 
him  away  to  the  mountains  and  there 
shield  him  against  threatened  arrest, 
must  have  touched  him  deeply.  He 
was  still  more  touched,  however,  by  the 
helpless  condition  of  his  people,  and 
never  showed  himself  greater  than  when 
he  applied  for  pardon,  and  urged  all 
citizens  to  adapt  themselves  as  far  as 
possible  to  the  new  regime  and  to  de 
velop  whatever  resources  their  stricken 


124  EOBEET  E.  LEE 

section  possessed.  He  withdrew  his  ap 
plication  for  amnesty  when  it  looked  as 
if  he  would  be  tried  for  treason,  but  this 
last  indignity  was  not  offered  him  in 
face  of  Grant's  characteristic  opposition. 
He  proposed  to  spend  his  country 
leisure  in  preparing  a  history  of  his 
campaigns  5  but,  unfortunately,  materials- 
were  hard  to  collect,  and  the  world  has 
been  deprived  of  a  valuable  and,  con 
sidering  Grant's  achievement,  perhaps 
a  very  great  book.  Offers  of  other  and 
more  lucrative  employment  came  to  him 
from  all  sides.  Even  from  England  he 
had  the  tender  of  an  estate.  But  he 
would  take  no  gifts  5  and  he  would  not 
sell  his  name  to  any  enterprise,  even 
an  honorable  one.  He  would  attempt 
nothing  for  which  he  did  not  feel  quali 
fied  ;  and  this  fine  scrupulousness  al 
most  kept  him  from  taking  a  position 
which  he  afterward  adorned, — the  presi 
dency  of  Washington  College  at  Lexing 
ton,  to  which  he  was  elected  in  August, 


EGBERT  E.  LEE  125 

1865.  How  this  institution,  which  had 
been  founded  on  funds  bequeathed  by 
Washington,  could  resume  its  duties 
amid  the  general  depression  was  hard  to 
see.  Indeed,  there  is  an  amusing  story 
told  as  to  the  difficulty  with  which  a 
suitably  dressed  trustee  was  secured  for 
a  necessary  interview  with  General  Lee. 
But  the  installation  of  the  new  president 
took  place  on  October  2,  and  the  saying 
that  where  there's  a  will  there's  a  way 
received  a  fresh  confirmation. 

Lack  of  space  forbids  us  to  describe  at 
any  length  the  five  years  General  Lee 
devoted  to  his  new  task.  Perhaps  as 
clear  a  proof  of  his  administrative 
capacity  as  could  be  desired  is  furnished 
by  the  fact  that,  although  a  soldier  by 
training  and  profession  and  a  former 
superintendent  of  West  Point,  he  did 
not  seek  to  cramp  the  college  by  intro 
ducing  features  of  discipline  and  study 
with  which  he  was  familiar.  Other 
Southern  colleges  that  called  old  sol- 


126  EOBEET  E.  LEE 

diers  to  their  chairs  were  not  so  fortu 
nate;  but,  then,  there  was  no  other 
General  Lee  to  be  had.  From  the  ma 
terial  side  Lee's  presidency  was  soon 
seen  to  be  a  success ;  from  the  intellect 
ual  side  equal  progress  was  made,  for 
the  scheme  of  studies  was  enlarged  most 
liberally  and  in  the  line  of  modern  re 
quirements  ;  while  from  the  moral  side 
it  would  have  been  impossible  to  obtain 
finer  results.  Lee's  character  as  a  Chris 
tian  and  a  man  dominated  the  academic 
community ;  nor  has  his  influence  in  all 
likelihood  ceased  to  be  felt,  although  a 
generation  has  passed  away.  He  knew 
his  students  personally,  and  a  word  from 
him  was  sufficient  to  control  the  wildest 
spirits  among  them.  In  short,  he  was 
an  ideal  president  of  a  typical  American 
college  ;  and  there  is  no  reason  to  believe 
that  he  would  not  have  been  equal  to 
the  responsibilities  of  a  great  university. 
He  was  probably  right  in  declining  to 
be  made  Governor  of  Virginia,  for  his 


EOBEET  E.  LEE  127 

distinct  executive  genius  hardly  seems 
to  have  been  political  in  character.  Yet 
this  is  by  no  means  certain.  What  is 
certain  is  that,  much  as  in  Washing 
ton's  case,  his  splendid  moral  character 
has  for  many  people  cast  somewhat  in 
the  shade  his  great  intellectual  powers. 
The  opinion  is  widely  prevalent  that 
neither  Lee  nor  Washington  had  a  great 
mind;  but  it  may  be  safely  contended 
that  this  is  an  utter  mistake,  due  to  a 
common  inability  to  recognize  greatness 
when  mental  qualities  and  capacities  are 
admirably  balanced. 

Lee's  family  life  during  his  career  at 
Lexington  seems  to  have  been  so  pure 
and  beautiful  that  we  may  well  forbear 
to  touch  it.  It  was  troubled  only  by  his 
own  failing  health.  Since  his  exposure 
in  1863  he  had  suffered  from,  rheuma 
tism  of  the  heart,  and  by  the  fall  of  1869 
he  began  to  show  plain  signs  of  giving 
way.  The  winter  tried  him  severely, 
and  in  the  spring  of  1870  he  took  a  trip 


128  EOBEET  E.  LEE 

to  Georgia  with  no  permanent  good  re 
sults.  After  a  summer  at  the  springs  he 
resumed  his  duties  at  the  college  with 
somewhat  of  his  old  ardor  ;  but  on  Sep 
tember  28  he  had  to  preside  at  a  vestry 
meeting  in  a  damp,  cold  church  and  to 
go  home  late  through  the  rain.  With 
characteristic  generosity  he  had  promised 
to  make  up  a  deficit  in  the  clergyman's 
salary;  and  with  equally  characteristic 
piety  he  stood  that  evening  at  his  tea 
table  to  say  grace,  when  suddenly  his 
voice  failed  him  and  he  sank  into  a 
chair.  For  several  days  he  lingered  and 
almost  seemed  to  improve ;  but  on  Octo 
ber  10  he  grew  worse,  and  at  nine 
o'clock  on  the  morning  of  the  12th  he 
died,  "a  prisoner  of  war  on  parole," 
with  the  pathetic  exhortation  upon  his 
lips,  "Tell  Hill  he  must  come  up." 
How  often  he  had  waited  for  his  subor 
dinates  to  come  up !  IsTow  he  himself 
had  answered  his  Master's  summons  as 
calmly  and  as  grandly  as  he  had  obeyed 


EOBEET  E.  LEE  129 

His  commands  throughout  his  long,  glo 
rious  life. 

If  it  remained  only  to  tell  of  the 
gloom  cast  over  the  South  by  his  death, 
of  the  tributes  to  his  worth  that  came 
spontaneously  from  friend  and  foe,  of 
the  homage  paid  his  worn-out  body  in 
Lexington,  of  the  solemn  funeral  given 
him,  of  the  monuments  that  have  since 
been  reared  in  his  honor,  our  task 
would  be  comparatively  easy.  It  is  ob 
vious,  however,  that  we  must  take  leave 
of  such  a  man  with  an  attempt  to  sum 
up  his  character  and  achievements  $  and 
this  is  a  task  from  which  any  historian 
or  biographer  might  well  shrink.  The 
present  writer  must  frankly  confess  his 
inadequacy  to  its  performance,  but  he 
would  be  false  to  himself  and  his  hero, 
did  he  not  claim  for  the  latter  a  place 
among  the  greatest  and  finest  spirits 
that  have  ever  trod  this  earth.  With 
the  supreme  men  of  action,  the  small 


130  EOBEET  E.  LEE 

group  of  statesmen- conquerors,  which  in 
cludes  Caesar,  Alexander,  Charlemagne, 
Cromwell,  Frederick,  Napoleon,  Wash 
ington,  and  perhaps  one  or  two  more, 
he  cannot  be  ranked,  because  he  never 
ruled  a  realm  or  a  republic,  and  actually 
shrank  in  1862  from  assuming  the 
responsibilities  of  commander-in-chief. 
We  know,  indeed,  from  his  own  words 
that  he  would  not  have  wished  to  resem 
ble  any  of  these  men  save  Washington  ; 
and  we  know,  also,  that  he  could  not 
have  entered  their  class  without  losing 
the  exquisite  modesty  and  unselfishness 
that  give  him  his  unique  charm.  But 
do  we,  his  lovers,  wish  to  put  Lee  in 
any  class,  even  the  highest  ?  Should  we 
not  prefer  him  to  stand  alone1?  If  we 
do,  we  have  our  wish ;  for  no  one  class 
contains  him.  There  is,  seemingly,  no 
character  in  all  history  that  combines 
power  and  virtue  and  charm  as  he  does. 
He  is  with  the  great  captains,  the  su 
preme  leaders  of  all  time.  He  is  with 


EOBEET  E.  LEE  131 

the  good,  pure  men  and  chivalrous  gen 
tlemen  of  all  time, —  the  knights  sans 
peur  et  sans  reproche.  And  he  is  not 
only  in  these  two  noble  classes  of  chosen 
spirits,  but  he  is,  in  each  case,  either  a 
plain  leader  or  else  without  any  obvious 
superior.  But  where  can  another  such 
man  be  found!  Of  whom  besides  Lee 
may  it  be  justly  said  that  he  is  with 
Belisarius  and  Turenne  and  Marlborough 
and  Moltke  on  the  one  hand,  and  on  the 
other  with  Callicratidas  and  Saint  Louis, 
with  the  Chevalier  Bayard  and  Sir 
Philip  Sidney? 


BIBLIOGEAPHY. 

The  mass  of  books  and  articles  that 
deal  more  or  less  directly  with  General 
Lee  is  so  large  that  to  attempt  even  a 
partial  enumeration  of  them  would  be 
to  attempt  a  bibliography  of  the  war 
for  the  Union.  Most  of  the  chief  gen 
erals,  both  of  the  Army  of  Northern 
Virginia  and  of  the  Army  of  the  Poto 
mac,  have  either  composed  memoirs  or 
had  their  lives  written  ;  while  numerous 
books  and  monographs  have  been  de 
voted  to  special  campaigns  and  battles. 
The  general  reader  will  of  course  pass 
by  much  of  this  rapidly  accumulating 
literature ;  but  he  will  do  well  to  con 
sult  Colonel  William  Allan's  "The 
Army  of  Northern  Virginia  in  1862" 
(Boston,  1892:  Houghton,  Mifflin  & 
Co.)  ;  "The  Battles  and  Leaders  of  the 
Civil  War  »  (4  vols.  New  York,  1887  : 
The  Century  Company)  ;  the  Comte  de 
Paris7 s  "History  of  the  Civil  War  in 


BIBLIOGKAPHY  133 

America ?  '  (Philadelphia,  1875-1888  : 
J.  H.  Coates  &  Co.)  ;  General  Grant's 
"  Personal  Memoirs "  ('New  York,  1885: 
C.  L.  Webster  &  Co. )  ;  and  J.  C.  Kopes's 
"The  Story  of  the  Civil  War"  (New 
York,  1898  :  G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons)  5  as 
well  as  the  chief  books  relative  to  the 
careers  of  Generals  J.  E.  Johnston,  T.  J. 
Jackson,  Beauregard,  Longstreet,  Stuart, 
Meade,  McClellan,  etc.  The  volumi 
nous  war  records,  the  papers  of  the 
Southern  Historical  Society,  and  the 
two  series  of  monographs  known  as 
"  Great  ^Commanders ?  ?  (New  York:  D. 
Appleton  &  Co.)  and  " Campaigns  of 
the  Civil  War"  (New  York:  Chas. 
Scribner's  Sons)  should  also  be  men 
tioned. 

Of  specific  books  and  articles  dealing 
primarily  with  the  biography  of  General 
Lee,  the  lives  and  accounts  by 

I.  James  Dabney  McCabe  (Atlanta, 
1866  :  National  Publishing  Company), 


134  BIBLIOGBAPHY 

II.  E.    A.   Pollard    (New  York,    1871: 
E.  B.  Treat  &  Co.), 

III.  John    Esten    Cooke    (New    York, 
1871 :   D.  Appleton  &  Co.),  and 

IY.  Emily  Y.  Mason  (Baltimore,  1874  : 
J.  Murphy  &  Co.) 

were  early  attempts  to  supply  popular 
information  to  the  people  of  the  South 
about  their  chosen  hero. 

Y.  PERSONAL  BEMINISCENCES,  ANEC 
DOTES,  AND  LETTERS  OF  GENERAL  BOB- 
ERT  E.  LEE  (New  York,  1874 :  D.  Ap 
pleton  &  Co. )  is  not  a  formal  life,  but  is 
very  useful  as  a  source  of  materials. 

YI.  FOUR  YEARS  WITH  GENERAL  LEE, 
by  Colonel  W.  H.  Taylor  (New  York, 
1878  :  D.  Appleton  &  Co. ),  is  valuable 
as  being  the  record  of  one  of  Lee's  staff 
officers. 

VII.  MEMOIRS  OF  GENERAL  BOBERT  E. 
LEE,  by  General  A.  L.  Long  (New 


BIBLIOGEAPHY  135 

York,  1887:  J.  M.  Stoddart  &  Co.),  is 
one  of  the  fullest  and  most  important  of 
all  the  biographies.  General  Long  was 
one  of  Lee's  military  secretaries  and  one 
of  his  most  intimate  friends. 

VIII.  THE  GREAT  COMMANDERS  SERIES 
(New  York,  1894  :   D.  Appleton  &  Co. ) 
contains  a  good  though  brief  biography 
of  General  Lee  by  his  nephew,  General 
Fitzhugh  Lee,  and 

IX.  THE  HEROES  OF  THE  NATIONS  SE 
RIES  (New  York,  1897  :  G.  P.  Putnam's 
Sons)  one  by  Professor  Henry  A.  White, 
of  Washington  and  Lee  University. 


THE  BEACON  BIOGRAPHIES. 

M.  A.  DEWOLFE  HOWE,  Editor. 


The  aim  of  this  series  is  to  furnish  brief,  read 
able,  and  authentic  accounts  of  the  lives  of  those 
Americans  whose  personalities  have  impressed 
themselves  most  deeply  on  the  character  and 
history  of  their  country.  On  account  of  the 
length  of  the  more  formal  lives,  often  running 
into  large  volumes,  the  average  busy  man  and 
woman  have  not  the  time  or  hardly  the  inclina 
tion  to  acquaint  themselves  with  American  bi 
ography.  In  the  present  series  everything  that 
such  a  reader  would  ordinarily  care  to  know  is 
given  by  writers  of  special  competence,  who 
possess  in  full  measure  the  best  contemporary 
point  of  view.  Each  volume  is  equipped  with 
a  frontispiece  portrait,  a  calendar  of  important 
dates,  and  a  brief  bibliography  for  further  read 
ing.  Finally,  the  volumes  are  printed  in  a  form 
convenient  for  reading  and  for  carrying  handily 
in  the  pocket. 

SMALL,   MAYNARD  &  COMPANY,  Publishers. 


THE  BEACON  BIOGRAPHIES. 


The  following  volumes  are  issued :  — 

Louis  Agassiz,  by  ALICE  BACHE  GOULD. 
John  James  Audubon,  by  JOHN  BURROUGHS. 
Edwin  Booth,  by  CHARLES  TOWNSEND  COPELAND. 
Phillips  Brooks,  by  M.  A.  DEWOLFE  HOWE. 
John  Brown,  by  JOSEPH  EDGAR  CHAMBERLIN. 
Aaron  Burr,  by  HENRY  CHILDS  MERWIN. 
James  Fenimore  Cooper,  by  W.  B.  SHUBRICK  CLYMER. 
Stephen  Decatur,  by  CYRUS  TOWNSEND  BRADY. 
Frederick  Douglass,  by  CHARLES  W.  CHESNUTT. 
Ralph  Waldo  Emerson,  by  FRANK  B.  SANBORN. 
David  G.  Farragut,  by  JAMES  BARNES. 
John  Fiske,  by  THOMAS  SERGEANT  PERRY. 
Ulysses  S.  Grant,  by  OWEN  WISTER. 
Alexander  Hamilton,  by  JAMES  SCHOULER. 
Nathaniel  Hawthorne,  by  Mrs.  JAMES  T.  FIELDS. 
Father  Hecker,  by  HENRY  D.  SEDGWICK,  Jr. 
Sam  Houston,  by  SARAH  BARNWELL  ELLIOTT. 
"  Stonewall "  Jackson,  by  CARL  HOVEY. 
Thomas  Jefferson,  by  THOMAS  E.  WATSON. 
v Robert  E.  Lee,  by  WILLIAM  P.  TRENT. 
Henry  W.  Longfellow,  by  GEORGE  RICE  CARPENTER. 
James  Russell  Lowell,  by  EDWARD  EVERETT  HALE,  Jr. 
Samuel  F.  B.  Morse,  by  JOHN  TROWBRIDGE. 
Thomas  Paine,  by  ELLERY  SEDGWICK. 
Daniel  Webster,  by  NORMAN  HAPGOOD. 
Walt  Whitman,  by  ISAAC  HULL  PLATT. 
John  Greenleaf  Whittier,  by  RICHARD  BURTOM. 


THE  WESTMINSTER   BIOG 
RAPHIES. 


The  WESTMINSTER  BIOGRAPHIES  are  uniform  in  plan, 
size,  and  general  make-up  with  the  BEACON  BIOGRAPHIES, 
the  point  of  important  difference  lying  in  the  fact  that 
they  deal  with  the  lives  of  eminent  Englishmen  instead 
of  eminent  Americans.  They  are  bound  in  limp  red  cloth, 
are  gilt-topped,  and  have  a  cover  design  and  a  vignette  title- 
page  by  BERTRAM  GROSVENOR  GOODHUE.  Like  the  Beacon 
Biographies,  each  volume  has  a  frontispiece  portrait,  a 
photogravure,  a  calendar  of  dates,  and  a  bibliography  for 
further  reading. 

The  following  volumes  are  issued  :  — 

Robert  Browning,  by  ARTHUR  WAUGH. 

Daniel  Defoe,  by  WILFRED  WHITTEN. 

Adam  Duncan  (Lord  Camperdown),  by  H.  W.  WILSON. 

George  Eliot,  by  CLARA  THOMSON. 

Cardinal  Newman,  by  A.  R.  WALLER. 

John  Wesley,  by  FRANK  BANFIELD. 


SMALL,     MAYNARD  &  COMPANY,   Publishers. 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

LOAN  DEPT. 

This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below,  or 

on  the  date  to  which  renewed. 
Renewed  books  are  subject  to  immediate  recall. 


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